Spontaneous haemorrhage- Is imatinib the cause?

 

Dhanya RAMACHANDRAN and Saravanan THANGAVELU

Department of Medicine, PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

 

 

ABSTRACT

Imatinib, a tyrosine kinase-C protein inhibitor remains the first choice for the management of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) since its introduction over a decade ago. Intracranial and gastrointestinal haemorrhages have been previously reported in association with Imatinib therapy. We report the case of a 47-yr-old man who was recently diagnosed with chronic phase of CML, that was complicated by a spontaneous intramuscular haematoma in the left gluteal region after 10 days of treatment with Imatinib. To the best of our knowledge, an intramuscular haemorrhage has not been described so far in association with Imatinib therapy. Clinicians should be alert to the possibility of spontaneous haemorrhage at unusual sites in patients being treated with Imatinib.

 

Keywords: Adverse events, complications, bleeding, tyrosine kinase-C inhibitor

 

Correspondence author: Saravanan Thangavelu, Department of Medicine, PSG Hospitals, Coimbatore-641004, Tamil Nadu, India. Office: +91-422-2570170 (six lines); Ext: 5160

Fax: +91-422-2594400

E mail: dr_saravanan12@yahoo.co.in

 

Brunei Int Med J. 2013; 9 (1): 63-66

BACK TO CONTENTS