BACKGROUND: Neutropenic fever (NF) is associated with delayed engraftment after peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT).

MATERIAL AND METHODS: We followed the levels of acute-phase proteins (APPs) serially in 60 patients after peripheral blood stem-cell autograft (n=39) or peripheral blood stem-cell allograft (n=21) for hematologic malignancies and germinal tumors; we then examined the correlation of those levels with the presence of fever and with markers of engraftment.

RESULTS: Fever (present in 60% of patients) was associated with a highly statistically significant delay in reaching conventional engraftment targets (ANC >500/μL [0.5×10^9/L]; platelets >20,000/μL [20×10^9/L]; reticulocytes >20,000/μL [20×10^9/L]) (for all associations, p<0.001). Every 4th day for 24 days, we measured the APPs levels and the number of neutrophils (ANC), platelets (PL), and reticulocytes (RET) to reach the reference values of >0.5 G/L or >1.0 G/L for ANC, >20 G/L or >50 G/L for PL, and >20 G/L for RET, respectively. The presence of NF resulted in longer time to engraft hematopoietic stem cells with ANC, PL, and PET counts statistically significant (range 0.001–0.004). The median day range for NF patients was 21.22–26.89 versus 13.88–19.13 for no NF patients.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide additional information for monitoring hematopoietic engraftment in patients following PBSCT; the presence of NF can be tracked by serial measurements in serum of three investigated APPs throughout an early phase of hematopoietic recovery.

Keywords: Acute-Phase Proteins, Fever, Hematopoietic Stem Cells