title: Prognostic factors in bone marrow transplantation for beta thalassemia major: experiences from Iran.
abstract: This study concerns the effects of several pre-transplant features on outcome for patients with beta thalassemia major who underwent bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Seventy patients with beta thalassemia major underwent bone marrow transplantation during the period 1991-1997 in Shariati Hospital in Tehran, Iran. The survival and rejection curves levelled off at 8 and 18 months after transplantation at 82.6% and 11.4%, respectively. Pre-transplant clinical features (age, serum ferritin, portal fibrosis, hepatomegaly and quality of chelation therapy) were examined for their effects on survival and recurrence of thalassemia in this group of patients who were less than 16 years old. Increasing age, presence of portal fibrosis and increasing serum ferritin were significantly associated with reduced probability of survival (P = 0.0047, P = 0.016 and P = 0.024, respectively). Hepatomegaly and inadequate pre-transplant chelation therapy which were documented as poor prognostic factors in previous studies, were not evaluable in this study. We also showed the benefits of transplanting more than 5.5 x 10(8)/kg cells in this group of patients with no increase in complications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Oncology and BMT, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghavamzadeh
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nasseri
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Eshraghian
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jahani
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Baybordi
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nateghi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khodabandeh
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Sadjadi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mohyeddin
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Khademi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005293:Ferritins / Q000097:blood; D006084:Graft Rejection; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D017086:beta-Thalassemia / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D005293:Ferritins