The Effects of Multiple Transfusion on the Outcomes of Bone Marrow Transplantation from HLA-matched Sibling Donor in Patients with Severe Aplastic Anemia

Bin, Joong Hyun; Yoo, Young Kyoung; Kim, Sun Young; Jang, Pil Sang; Chung, Nak Gyun; Cho, Bin; Jeong, Dae Chul; Lee, Soon Ju; Kim, Hack Ki

Abstract

PURPOSE
We investigated the effects of pretransplant-transfusion on engraftment, graft versus host disease (GVHD) and graft rejection after bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in children with severe aplastic anemia who had HLA-identical sibling donor. METHODS: We reviewed retrospectively the medical records of 47 children with severe aplastic anemia who received grafts from HLA-matched sibling donor using same conditioning regimen (procarbazine, antithymocyte globulin, and cyclophosphamide) from September 1986 to May 2001. GVHD prophylaxis consisted of cyclosporine and short-term methotrexate. Patients receiving multiple transfusion more than 40 transfused units in total before BMT were defined as high-risk group (HRG) and those with less than 40 transfused units were as standard-risk group (SRG). RESULTS: Among 47 patients, 30 patients were classified into SRG and remaining 17 were into HRG. The median time from diagnosis to transplant was 4 (range, 1~14) months in SRG and 36 (range, 3~360) months in HRG. Primary engraftment was achieved in all patients. Acute GVHD (> or =grade II) in HRG (13.3%) was comparable with in SRG (5.9%) (P=0.221), meanwhile corresponding fugures for chronic GVHD was 1 (3.3%) and 2 (11.8%). All of these patients have experienced complete resolution of GVHD and are no longer receiving immunosuppressive therapy. Booster stem cell infusion was needed for poor graft function (n=3) in SRG and also for poor graft function (n=1) or progressive rejection (n=3) in HRG. Five-year disease free survival rate was 100% in SRG and 94.1 6% in HRG (P=0.18). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that multiple transfusion may be not a risk factor for rejection or poor outcome. Progressive rejection was observed only in patients with multiple transfusion but did not affect the survival.