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Intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) helped resolve the effects of vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) in three patients following receipt of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, a case series in Canada found.
Following administration of high-dose IVIG, all three patients with VITT experienced reduced antibody-induced platelet activation, reported Ishac Nazy, PhD, of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and colleagues.
All patients had arterial thrombotic events, and two also had venous thrombosis. However, no patients had evidence of new or progressive thrombosis following IVIG treatment, they wrote in a brief report in the
The authors noted that VITT mimics autoimmune heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, and high-dose IVIG helps reduce platelet activation. They added that because minimal data exist for treating patients with VITT, they used "an analogy" with autoimmune heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, where immune globulin "rapidly increases the platelet count and reduces hypercoagulability."