Changes in bone marrow and peripheral blood lymphocyte subset findings with onset of hepatitis-associated aplastic anemia

Comparison of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and immunosuppressive therapy as the first-line treatment option for patients with severe hepatitis−associated aplastic anemia

Hepatitis-associated aplastic anemia (HAAA) is a rare variant of acquired aplastic anemia characterized with a syndrome of bone marrow failure after hepatitis. We retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of consecutive severe HAAA patients who received immunosuppressive therapy (IST, n = 70), matched-sibling donor hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (MSD-HSCT, n = 26) or haploidentical-donor (HID) HSCT (n = 11) as the first-line treatment. In the IST group, the hematologic response (HR) rate was 55.71% at 6 months. In contrast, HSCT recipients exhibited significantly more rapid and sustained hematopoiesis (HR 76.92%, 96.15% and 96.15% at 3, 6 and 12months, respectively). The 5-year overall survival (OS) was not different among IST (83.7 ± 4.9%), MSD-HSCT (93.3 ± 6.4%) and HID-HSCT group (80.8 ± 12.3%). Compared with IST, MSD and HID-HSCT demonstrated a trend of superiority in the estimated 5-year failure-free survival rates (93.3 ± 6.4% vs 64.3 ± 6.0%, p = 0.05; 80.8 ± 12.3% vs 64.3 ± 6.0%, p = 0.57). In subsequent stratified analysis on age, we found that HID-HSCT showed its efficacy and safety among young patients. In sum, MSD-HSCT remains first-line treatment choice for HAAA, whereas HID-HSCT represents an alternative treatment choice in addition to IST for young patients (< 40 years) without a matched sibling donor.

Assessment of Hepatic Profile in Acquired Aplastic Anemia: An Experience From Pakistan

Introduction: Aplastic anemia (AA) is characterized by pancytopenia and hypocellular marrow in the absence of an abnormal infiltrate or increase in reticulin fibrosis. The diagnosis of AA is challenging at times due to decreased cellularity and overlapping morphological features with other bone marrow failure syndromes. Hepatitis-associated aplastic anemia (HAAA) is a rare variant in which patients typically present with jaundice and hepatitis followed by pancytopenia almost within 6 months. Post-hepatitis AA accounts for approximately 1-5% of cases, and invariably such cases are negative for the known hepatitis virus as well. There is limited literature available to understand the correlation of AA with hepatitis with none reported at the national level in our region. As AA is relatively more prevalent in Southeast Asia as compared to the western world and hepatitis is a prevalent disease in our population, the main purpose of this study was to assess the hepatic profile and determine the association of hepatitis in AA at the time of diagnosis.

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at the National Institute of Blood Disease and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Karachi, from November 2019 to December 2020 after the informed consent from patients. The study included all treatment-naïve patients of acquired AA with no prior history of taking steroids, immunosuppressive treatment, or chemoradiation therapy. Liver function tests, complete blood count, prothrombin time (PT), and activated partial thromboplastin time were performed, along with viral profiles (HAV, Hep B, Hep C, and HIV). SPSS version 23 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) was used for statistical analysis. Mean and standard deviations were computed for quantitative variables while percentages and frequencies were reported for qualitative variables. T-test was used to observe the main difference between groups and a p-value <0.05 was considered to be significant.

Results: Out of a total of 351 patients, 29 (8.2%) patients with AA tested positive for viral hepatitis. Hepatitis A was the most prevalent hepatitis (4.0%), followed by hepatitis C (3.7%). The comparison of platelet counts in patients with and without hepatitis was reported to be of statistical significance (p-value < 0.05). A significant statistical difference (p-value < 0.0001) was found in platelet count and PT in patients of AA with and without hepatitis.

Conclusion: Overall, this study revealed that <10% of patients of AA had a positive screening for hepatitis A, B, and C and low platelet count, and PT was statistically significant when compared between the patients with and without hepatitis. Hepatitis being prevalent in our part of the world might have an important causal association with AA. Patients with AA should be screened for liver functions and viral hepatitis at the time of diagnosis. In addition to hepatitis A, B, and C and HIV, other causes of hepatitis should also be screened such as parvovirus B19, human herpes virus 16, and adenovirus which are not included in routine diagnostic viral testing panel.