CASE REPORT article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Thrombosis and Haemostasis
This article is part of the Research TopicResearch on the Correlative Mechanisms and Clinical Exploration of Headache and Cerebrovascular DiseasesView all 6 articles
Severe thrombocytopenia in the context of concomitant tirofiban and ibuprofen use: does ibuprofen matter?
Provisionally accepted
- Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Jinan, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Tirofiban is a glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa receptor antagonist that inhibits platelet-to-platelet interactions and thrombosis by preventing fibrinogen from binding to platelets. While it has the potential to cause thrombocytopenia and bleeding, instances of severe thrombocytopenia are rare. The question arises whether the concurrent use of tirofiban with other drugs that pose risks to platelets might increase the likelihood of severe platelet depletion. Herein, we present two cases of profound and sudden thrombocytopenia associated with tirofiban use in the treatment of acute progressive stroke.Both patients received ibuprofen for pain relief concomitantly.Drug-induced thrombocytopenia (DITP), a rare but potentially life-threatening adverse effect, occurred. Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) with both aspects regarding platelets: function inhibition, responsible for drug-induced thrombocytopenia. We recommend avoiding concomitant use of ibuprofen in patients receiving tirofiban infusion. Alternative analgesics (e.g., acetaminophen/paracetamol) may be considered when pain management is required. If concurrent administration is unavoidable, intensive platelet count monitoring (e.g., every 6–12 hours) is imperative during the first 24 hours of therapy.
Keywords: Thrombocytopenia, Tirofiban, drug-induced thrombocytopenia, Ibuprofen, Anti-inflammatory drugs
Received: 27 Jul 2025; Accepted: 06 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Zhu, Chen and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lili Sun, sunlili1818@126.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.