Flow cytometry in the diagnosis of drug-induced thrombocytopenia: two illustrative cases

Drug-induced thrombocytopenia is a challenging diagnosis in the clinical practice because of the many drugs or alternative causes that may be implicated. Exact identification of such drug(s) is required to guide future management and avoid re-exposure. We describe two cases of isolated thrombocytopenia in which cytometric analysis, a readily available technique, allowed the identification of the causative drug in the context of complex therapies (rifampicin and abciximab causing late onset thrombocytopenia).