Being underweight may reduce your ability to mobilise peripheral blood stem cells

Impact of body mass index on pulmonary complications in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplant

The objective of this study was to examine the association between body mass index (BMI) and the incidence of pulmonary complications (PCs) after hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT). We reviewed 398 adult patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) who received autologous or allogeneic HCT between 1993 and 1997. BMI was classified as normal (18.5 < BMI ≤ 24.9), overweight (24.9 < BMI ≤ 30) and obese (BMI > 30). Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between BMI and presence of PCs within 100 days post-HCT while adjusting for patient-, disease- and transplant-related variables. The incidence of PCs within 100 days post-HCT was 32% (n = 129). Median BMI was 25.4 (range: 18.6-52.2). Median age was 48.8 years (range: 19.5-73.6 years). Multivariate analysis failed to show significant association between BMI and PCs. However, a total body irradiation (TBI)-based conditioning regimen was associated with lower rate of PCs.

NRS2002 assesses nutritional status of leukemia patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

OBJECTIVE

To discuss whether nutritional risk screening 2002 (NRS2002) is appropriate for nutritional risk screening for leukemia patients before and after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), and whether there are risk differences in other conditions, such as age, gender and matching degree; to find the methods and indicators of nutritional risk screening for these patients before and after HSCT, in order to give timely intervention to guarantee the successful completion of the entire transplantation process.

METHODS

Nutritional risk of 99 leukemia patients was screened with NRS2002 before and after HSCT. The (χ) (2) test was applied to compare the risk differences between groups such as age, gender and matching degree, while the differences of other enumeration data, such as recent (1-3 months) weight loss, reduced food intake within one week and BMI, were compared by continuity correction.

RESULTS

Of the 99 leukemia patients, 22 cases (22.2%) had nutritional risk before HSCT, while all patients had nutritional risk after HSCT; there is no significant difference in nutritional risk between male and female, and patients of less than 30 years old, not-full matched, recent (1-3 months) weight loss, reduced food intake within a week or BMI <18.5 were more likely to have nutritional risk; and 77 cases (77.8%) had weight loss, among which 49 patients (63.6%) had more than 5% weight loss within one month.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed that leukemia patients should receive the nutritional risk screening conventionally before and after HSCT, and NRS2002 was only appropriate for nutritional risk screening before HSCT. More attention should be paid to the patients less than 30 years old or not-full matched. Weight change was one of the important nutritional indicators for patients after HSCT.