Interstitial pneumonitis after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation following total body irradiation

The records of 40 patients who received allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) at Hyogo College of Medicine under the same conditioning regimen using cyclophosphamide and total body irradiation (TBI) from January 1984 to August 1989 were analyzed. The dose rate of TBI was 10 cGy per minute, and the total dose was 10 Gy (2.5 Gy daily for 4 days). Interstitial pneumonitis (IP) occurred in 13 of 40 patients, and was fatal in five patients. The probability of developing IP during the first year was 31%. We performed univariate analysis on the following factors but did not find any significant risk factors for IP: age and sex of patient, sex mismatch, ABO mismatch, grade of acute graft-versus-host disease, post immunosuppression regimen, and number of marrow cells transfused.