Loading...
Intracranial hemorrhage and other major bleeding associated with thrombocytopenia complicates stem cell transplantation or chemotherapy for malignant disease. Bleeding can occur despite seemingly safe platelet counts, and platelet transfusions are not always effective.
To examine predictors for bleeding and the effect of platelet transfusions in this setting, investigators conducted a multicenter randomized controlled trial in 1077 patients with hypoproliferative thrombocytopenia.
Results were as follows:
Bleeding was greater with allogeneic transplants than with autologous transplants (21% vs. 10%; P<0.001) or after chemotherapy (21% vs. 11%; P<0.001).
The risk for bleeding was higher with platelet counts ≤5000/µL versus ≥80,000/µL (odds ratio…