A prognostic model (BATAP) with external validation for patients with transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy

Transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA) is a potentially life-threatening complication following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Information on markers for early prognostication remains limited, and no predictive tools for TA-TMA are available. We attempted to develop and validate a prognostic model for TA-TMA. A total of 507 patients who developed TA-TMA following allo-HSCT were retrospectively identified and separated into a derivation cohort and a validation cohort, according to the time of transplantation, to perform external temporal validation. Patient age (odds ratio [OR], 2.371; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.264-4.445), anemia (OR, 2.836; 95% CI, 1.566-5.138), severe thrombocytopenia (OR, 3.871; 95% CI, 2.156-6.950), elevated total bilirubin (OR, 2.716; 95% CI, 1.489-4.955), and proteinuria (OR, 2.289; 95% CI, 1.257-4.168) were identified as independent prognostic factors for the 6-month outcome of TA-TMA. A risk score model termed BATAP (Bilirubin, Age, Thrombocytopenia, Anemia, Proteinuria) was constructed according to the regression coefficients. The validated c-statistic was 0.816 (95%, CI, 0.766-0.867) and 0.756 (95% CI, 0.696-0.817) for the internal and external validation, respectively. Calibration plots indicated that the model-predicted probabilities correlated well with the actual observed frequencies. This predictive model may facilitate the prognostication of TA-TMA and contribute to the early identification of high-risk patients.