10 courses) and 81% (13 out of 16 courses) respectively. There were no side effects. Oral prednisolone was initially less effective (70% response) but roughly the same proportion of patients (85% or 16 out of 20 courses) reacted within three to four weeks, the delay being due to a slow response in three patients. The table shows the mean platelet counts in the three patient groups for those patients who reacted to treatment. The effect of intravenous corticosteroids was even faster than that of

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... intravenous gammaglobulin, although the difference was not statistically significant.