Search

Purpose: The aim of this work is double. On the one hand, to assess if the measures to strictly control the clinical indications of fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) transfusion may lead to a decrease of its use, and on the other to assess the importance of FFP with regard to other blood components, along with disclosing the number and characteristics of the more patients and those who receive only FFP., Material and Methods: Starting from data of the blood bank and the hospital records, an analysis of the use of FFP in the General Hospital was carried out, and it was correlated with the use of other blood components, mostly red cells (RC), and the hospital indices expressed as DRG. An analysis was also performed of the use of FFP in 1996 with regard to the number of transfused patients, mean consumed units in general and according to patient-groups, association with RC use and identification of high-use patients (defined as requiring over 3 FFP units)., Results: A decrease in the use of FFP between 1992 and 1996 was appreciated, from 1,385 to 760 units. This decrease, when correlated with the use of RC, was from 17.8 to 9.2 FFP units/ 100 RC units during this period. The FFP units/100 RC units varied from 6 to 2 in three years; this index has been stable since then. With regard to the use in 1996, 162 patients received FFP, which represents 4% of all the transfusions in the hospital. Of these, 15 patients received only plasma (9% of the patients receiving FFP and 0.3% of all transfusions). Other blood components, mainly RC, were associated to FFP in 96% of the cases. The patients consuming more FFP units were those of heart surgery and intensive care units, with significant differences with respect to others., Conclusions: This study shows a steady decrease in the use of FFP, which is stable in the last years. The patients receiving only FFP represented a low number with respect to all the patients transfused. The follow-up of these patients might provide valuable data about the benefit of adding additional security processes to standard FFP.

Purpose: To compare the maximum epidemiologic data attained from myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) with those of two main panmyelopathies, namely acute myeloblastic leukaemia (AML) and aplastic pancytopenia (AP)., Patients and Methods: A retrospective analysis was carried out on 21,135 patients included in the Bone Marrow Study Registry of the Jiménez Díaz Foundation along 35 years (1959-1993). The data were grouped into seven five-year periods. Of these, in the first three the study was performed on bone-marrow aspirates; after 1976 the histopathological study of bone-marrow biopsies was introduced, and since 1979 the karyotype has been regularly examined. The MDS were classified in accordance with the FAB system. With these premises borne in mind, the following aspects were considered: diagnostic interpretation of MDS along the years; diagnostic incidence of MDS, AML and AP in each of the five-year periods; relative frequency of those diagnosis with respect to the total number of cases; evolutive profile of sex and age at diagnosis; quantitative significance of secondary MDS-AL and toxic AP along the years; MDS subtypes and their epidemiologic characteristics., Results: A total of 510 MDS, 610 AML and 223 AP cases were identified. With respect to the sex of the MDS patients, some changes have been seen along the years, from an M/F ratio of 1.9 to 1.0; and the mean age at diagnosis raised from 53.3 years (with only 1.7% of the cases over 65 years of age) to 71.4 years (with 76.9% of the cases over 65 years of age), all this within the 1959-1989 period. The incidence of AML and AP has remained stable for the last 20 years; on the contrary, MDS have been increasing continuously along the 35 years of the study, which poses for a higher number of new cases in every period (from 35 to 119) and also for a higher relative frequency in the registry (from 1.37% to 4.40%) within the period 1959-1989. Valuable toxic history was progressively increasing in secondary MDS-AML and progressively decreasing in AP. With respect to the FAB subtypes of MDS, and taking into account the last of the five-year periods, the most frequently diagnosed were RA and RSA followed by RAEB, CMML and RAEB-T., Conclusions: The increment of the incidence of MDS cases correlates significantly with the increment of the patients aged over 65 years. This incidence appears to be scarcely influenced by previous mutagenic agents (radiotherapy, chemotherapy) and might be due to a better understanding of MDS.

Five cases of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) appearing on five members of two generations of a family, with autosomal dominant pattern, are presented. The clinico-biologic behaviour of 2 patients (studied and treated by the authors) plus the available data from the 3 others (diagnosed and treated at other hospitals) allowed us to discard any possibility of hereditary non-immunologic thrombocytopenia. The predisposition of ITP patients and their relatives to present clinico-biological features of autoimmune diseases is commented as a possible explanation for the rare forms of familial ITP.

Thirty-four new cases of acute promyelocytic leukaemia (M3) were diagnosed at the authors' Centre between 1970 and 1988 (19 males and 15 females) with ages between 5 and 73 years (median age, 32 years). Three cases were of the hypogranular variant or M3-v (8.8%). The clinical picture included: haemorrhagic diathesis (85%), pallor/malaise (82%), fever/infection (41%), hepatomegaly (26%), splenomegaly (12%). Leucopenia of less than 5 x 10(9)/L was present in 23/34 cases, laboratory signs of DIC in 26/31, increased LDH, over 400 U/mL, in 6/31, and abnormal karyotype in 7/15. One of the patients rejected any treatment; two others died of brain haemorrhage before therapy was started, and seven died in the first two weeks of treatment. Of the 31 patients treated, complete remission (CR) was achieved in 21 cases (67.7%). Allogeneic BMT was carried out in two of them, with further relapse and death. Post-remission treatment was given to the remaining 19 patients, and there were 13 relapses. Six patients have been in CR, 5 of them after cessation of therapy, for the last 1.5-11.5 years. Age under 50 years and leucocyte count below 5 x 10(9)/L at diagnosis were favourable prognostic factors according to the univariate statistical analysis performed. The survival plateau of the actuarial curve was reached beyond 2.75 years by 15% of all the patients treated (33 cases), 23% of the patients who achieved CR (21 cases), 31% of the patients under 50 years of age and 5 x 10(9)/L leucocyte count at diagnosis (15 cases) and 36% of these last achieving CR (13 cases).