Influence of selected clinical events on the need for red blood cell transfusion in patients with severe cytopenia following myeloablative chemotherapy.

The transfusional need in patients treated with myeloablative chemotherapy appears to be greater than that resulting from bone marrow suppression alone. The erythrocyte transfusional need may be expressed as delta hb = the daily loss of haemoglobin (mmol/l/day), and multivariate analyses of factors influencing delta hb have been carried out. We have studied 124 patients, mainly with acute myeloid leukaemia, treated with 537 courses of chemotherapy, inducing cytopenia (a white cell count < 1.0 x 10(9)/l) in 476 cases. The transfusional need was 2.5-3 times greater than expected, suggesting the presence of haemolysis and/or occult bleedings. Using multiple regression analysis and repeated measurement analysis the main factor influencing the transfusional need was type/dose of chemotherapy. The higher the dose of cytarabine the greater then transfusional need. Other factors significantly influencing the transfusional need were tumour burden, fever, treatment-related events such as positive blood cultures, systemic fungal infection, mucosal bleeding, melaena/haematemesis and diarrhoea. Finally, it was found that the transfusional need decreased gradually during the cytopenic period.