An immune-mediated, severe, acquired prothrombotic disorder, heparin-induced
thrombocytopenia type II (HIT II) occurs in 0.5-5% of patients exposed to
unfractionated heparin longer than 5-7 days. Arterial and venous thromboses
are induced by HIT II in about 35-50% of patients. Typical death rate for HIT
is about 29%, while 21% of HIT patients result in amputation of a limb. The
trend towards the occurrence of HIT due to the administration of low
molecular weight heparins (LMWH) taking ever conspicuous place in the
standard venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis has been more frequently
observed recently. It is considered that LMWH may cause HIT II in about
0.25-1%. The need for further modification of HIPA assays with LMWH has been
imposed in the HIT laboratory diagnostics, heretofore overburdened with
complexity. There are several constantly opposing problems arising in HIT
laboratory diagnostics, one of which is that in a certain number of patients
immunologic assays detect nonpathogenic antibodies (mainly IgM or IgA
heparin-PF4 antibodies) while, on the other hand, the occurrence of HIT
pathogenetically mediated by minor antigens (neutrophil-activating peptide 2
or interleukin 8) may be neglected in certain cases. The following factors
play an important role in the interpretation of each laboratory HIT assays
performed: 1. correlation with HIT clinical probability test, the best known
of which is 4T?score, 2. the interpretation of the laboratory findings
dependent on the time of the thrombocytopenia onset, as well as 3. the
sensitivity and specificity of each test respectively. The HIT diagnostics in
the presence of other comorbid states which may also induce thrombocytopenia,
more precisely known as pseudo HIT (cancer, sepsis, disseminated
intravascular coagulation, pulmonary embolism, antiphospholipid syndrome,
etc), represents a specific clinical problem.