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No Benefit From Platelet Transfusion for Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Patients Taking Antiplatelet Agents.
Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2016 Jul 24;
Authors: Zakko L, Rustagi T, Douglas M, Laine L
Abstract
BACKGROUND & AIMS: Antiplatelet agents decrease cardiovascular events but increase gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB). Guidelines propose platelet transfusion for patients who take antiplatelet agents and have serious GIB. We investigated whether such patients are at decreased risk for rebleeding or increased risk for cardiovascular events after platelet transfusion.
METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients admitted to Yale-New Haven Hospital, from 2008-2013, with GIB who were taking antiplatelet agents and had platelet counts higher than 100x10(9)/L. Cases (patients who received platelet transfusion, n=204) were matched with controls (no platelet transfusions, n=204) for sex, age, and GIB location. The primary outcome was recurrent GIB. Multivariable regression analyses were performed to adjust for differences in baseline characteristics.
RESULTS: Cases and controls had similar proportions of GIB due to non-variceal upper GIB (117/204 [57%] vs. 115/204 [56%]) and colonic GIB (80/204 [39%] vs. 81/204 [40%]). Cases had more severe GIB than controls, based on lower blood pressure and hemoglobin levels and higher heart rates and the proportion admitted to intensive care. Univariate analyses showed that higher proportions of cases had major cardiovascular events (23% vs 13% for controls), died (7% vs 1% for controls), or had hospital stay longer than 4 days (47% vs 33% for controls). However, multivariable analyses showed a significant difference between cases and controls in only risk of death (odds ratio, 5.57; 95% CI, 1.52-27.1). The adjusted odds ratio for recurrent bleeding was 1.47 (95% CI, 0.73-3.05) for cases vs controls.
CONCLUSION: The use of platelet transfusions in patients with GIB who are taking antiplatelet agents without thrombocytopenia did not reduce rebleeding but was associated with higher mortality. At least some of the increase in mortality could be due to the residual bias of an observational study, but given the lack of benefit, we do not support the use of platelet transfusions in patients with GIB who are taking antiplatelet agents.
PMID: 27464591 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]