While there is no literature on the impact of transfusions on quality of life in patients with aplastic anemia, the impact of frequent transfusions on quality of life has been observed in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who experienced anemia [3, 14].
Frequent transfusion of blood product may result in transfusion-associated immune modulation (TRIM) which further increases host susceptibility to opportunistic infection.
For example, patients with hyperferritinemia who have rheumatic or liver disease or who receive frequent transfusions because of hematological diseases often develop cytopenia and high fever resembling these signs in HPS.
The factors that positively influenced detection of iron overload included patients having received >20 RBC units (relevant trigger in 76% of respondents), introduction of serum ferritin as a standard test (76%), and awareness of the potential risks of frequent transfusions (75%).
Using RT-PCR to test for HCV RNA, we examined 58 samples from children: all 27 samples with antibody-positive results, 11 with high-negative (near the positive cutoff) results, 10 with negative results from children with a history of frequent transfusions, and 10 with low-negative results from children with no history of transfusion.
Frequent transfusions increase the risk of adverse events such as iron overload and early death.
However, because of the low number of patients receiving frequent transfusions at study entry (Table I), this could not be used as a predictive factor in this study.
About 10% of patients require frequent transfusions or are dependent on them.
A transfusion can take four to six hours, and frequent transfusions can cause iron to build up in the blood, leading to serious side effects.
A majority of the patients (96.7%) found it important for a new therapy to result in less frequent transfusions, less fatigue, and better emotional well-being.
