(HealthDay News) — Pretransplant screening chest computed tomography (CT) is beneficial for identifying abnormalities before allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HSCT), according to research published in Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.
Researchers characterized the prevalence of abnormalities on chest CT and explored their impact on allo-HSCT eligibility and outcomes post-transplant in a retrospective analysis of 511 patients with hematologic malignancies. The patients had acute myeloid leukemia (49%), myelodysplastic syndrome (23%), lymphoma (11%), and acute lymphocytic leukemia (10%).
A total of 199 patients (39%) had an abnormal chest CT. The most frequently detected abnormalities were pulmonary nodules (35%), consolidation (19%), ground-glass opacification (15%), bronchitis and bronchiolitis (11%), pleural effusions (6%), and new primary cancer (2%).
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In 48% of the patients with an abnormal chest CT, chest X-rays detected abnormalities. Forty-nine percent of the patients with an abnormal chest CT underwent further assessments and/or interventions before transplant, with pulmonary consultation and infectious diseases consultation being the most common work-ups (32% and 24%, respectively).
Compared with patients who had a normal chest CT, patients with an abnormal chest CT had significantly worse overall survival (P =.032), nonrelapse mortality (P =.015), and pulmonary-related mortality (P <.001) after allo-HSCT.
“Screening chest CT is frequently beneficial in uncovering significant lung pathologies, with therapeutic implications,” the researchers wrote. “Pretransplant screening chest CT can be reasonably considered as part of the routine pretransplant evaluation and appears considerably more sensitive than chest X-ray in this setting.”
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