Pulmonary Infection Within 100 Days After Transplantation Impaired Platelet Recovery in Patients with Hematologic Malignancies: A Propensity-Score-Matched Analysis

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary infection is one of the life-threatening complications occurring during allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT), even when prophylactic measures have been employed. Few studies have investigated whether pulmonary infection affects platelet recovery during alloHSCT. MATERIAL/METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 253 consecutive patients with hematologic diseases who received alloHSCT in our institute. Among them, 62 patients (25%) had pulmonary infection within 100 days after alloHSCT. Using the one-to-two propensity-score matching logistic model, 50 patients with pulmonary infection and 100 patients without were included based on age, disease and stage, time from diagnosis to transplantation, infused CD34(+) cells, and mononuclear cells. RESULTS: The incidences of prolonged thrombocytopenia in patients with pulmonary infection were 44% (22/50) and 9% (9/100) in the corresponding matched group (P<0.001). The mean time for platelet engraftment in patients with and without pulmonary infection were 19.29±13.96 days and 13.94±4.12 days (P=0.012), respectively. Multivariable logistic regression showed that pulmonary infection was an independent risk factor for impaired platelet recovery (OR: 5.335, 95% CI: 2.735–10.407, P<0.001). Impaired platelet recovery was associated with shorter survival and higher treatment-related mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that patients with pulmonary infection within 100 days after alloHSCT are more likely to suffer from impaired platelet recovery and have inferior long-term survival.