Blood use and alloimmunization in myelodysplastic syndrome patients: A study of a hospital transfusion experience

Patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) are characterized by chronic anemia and most of them require transfusion making them prone to developing transfusion dependence (TD) and inducing red blood cell (RBC) alloimmunization. Little information is available regarding the status of transfusions of MDS patients in China.

Clinical history and transfusion information of MDS transfusion patients from 2004 to 2023 were collected from electronic medical and laboratory records. TD patients were divided into increased blasts (IB) and non-IB group. Blood component transfusion was evaluated and compared in different groups using Mann-Whitney and chi-square tests.

A total of 893 MDS patients received a median of 13 (range, 0 - 436) RBC units and 10 (range, 0 - 216) platelets (PLT) units. Seventy-one (8 %) patients formed 106 RBC specific antibodies of which Rh system was the most (82/106 = 77 %). Twelve patients (17 %) had 14 antibodies (13 %) evanescence whereas 7 patients had former antibodies reemerge. Alloimmunization was more common in female, older patients and patients with larger RBC transfusions. Among 222 TD patients, RBC transfusion and alloimmunization rate in IB group were lower than those in non-IB group whilst PLT was the opposite.

Prophylactic Rh system compatible transfusion can reduce the risk of RBC alloimmunization in MDS patients' especially in TD and non-IB patients and can prevent reinduction of antibody evanescence. To our knowledge this is the first study we reveal RBC antibody induction and evanescence which may related to different disease stages and classifications of MDS patients.