Volume 1 • Issue 1 • 1000104 J Clin Exp Transplant, an open access journal
Research Article Open Access
Nagasawa et al., J Clin Exp Transplant 2016, 1:1
Case Report Open Access
Journal of Clinical and
Experimental Transplantation
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*Corresponding author: Masayuki Nagasawa, Department of Developmental
Biology, Post Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 5-45,
Yushima 1-chome, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan, Tel: +81-3-5803-5250;
Fax: +81-3-5803-5247; E-mail: mnagasawa.ped@tmd.ac.jp
Received April 19, 2016; Accepted June 22, 2016; Published June 28, 2016
Citation: Nagasawa M, Ono T, Aoki Y, Isoda T, Takagi M, et al. (2016) A
Pediatric Case of Very Late Onset Non-infectious Pulmonary Complication
(LONIPC) after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. J Clin Exp
Transplant 1: 104.
Copyright: © 2016 Nagasawa M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original author and source are credited.
A Pediatric Case of Very Late Onset Non-infectious Pulmonary
Complication (LONIPC) after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell
Transplantation
Masayuki Nagasawa*, Toshiaki Ono, Yuki Aoki, Takeshi Isoda, Masatoshi Takagi, Kohsuke Imai, Michiko Kajiwara and Tomohiro Morio
Department of Developmental Biology, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan
Abstract
17-months old infant with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome was transplanted with genetically two-locus mismatched
unrelated cord blood cells under the conditioning regimen of busulfan, cyclophosphamide and anti-thymocyte
globulin. GVHD prophylaxis was cyclosporine (CSP) plus short-term methotrexate with prednisolone (1 mg/kg).
Acute and chronic GVHD were not observed during the course. About six years later, he suffered from severe
cough and dyspnea with no fever, and diagnosed as late onset non-infectious pulmonary complications (LONIPC).
We have to be careful for LONIPC after SCT even in the absence of chronic GVHD for younger children because
the sign of insidious obstructive pulmonary symptoms is diffcult to monitor. To avoid the unexpected LONIPC,
introduction of RIC regimen should be considered for younger children, although it has been reported that RIC
regimen may increase the risk for GVHD and graft rejection.
Keywords: Non-infectious pulmonary complication; Chronic
GVHD; Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
Introduction
Late onset non-infectious pulmonary complications (LONIPC)
consist of major causes of morbidity and mortality afer allogeneic
hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Tese include
bronchiolitis obliterans (BO), bronchiolitis obliterans with organizing
pneumonia (BOOP), and idiopathic pneumonia syndrome (IPS), and
usually occur three months afer HSCT. According to the literature,
the incidence has been reported to be 10-25% [1]. Not well elucidated,
it is speculated that allo-immune reactions play a major role in the
pathogenesis, because they are closely associated with the presence
of chronic GVHD. Concerning to LONIPC among the pediatric
patients, few reports are available. Kojima et al have reported as a single
institutional experience that the incidence of LONIPC in the pediatric
patients was 10.3%, the median onset was 187 days (123-826 days), and
it was also related with chronic GVHD as in the cases of adults [2].
Case Report
17-months old infant with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome was
transplanted with genetically two-locus mismatched unrelated
cord blood cells. Major clinical symptoms were eczema and
thrombocytopenia (<1 × 10
4
/μl) and he had no signifcant infection
episodes before SCT. No expression of WASP protein was found in
T-lymphocytes, and genetic analysis revealed splicing anomaly due
to point mutation in intron2. Conditioning regimen consisted of
busulfan (4 mg/kg/day for 4 days), cyclophosphamide (50 mg/kg/
day for 4 days) and horse anti-thymocyte globulin (10 mg/kg/day for
4 days), and GVHD prophylaxis was cyclosporine (CSP) plus short-
term methotrexate with prednisolone (1 mg/kg). Dose of oral busulfan
was determined by the prior test dose and pharmacokinetic analysis.
Methotrexate on day 6 and day 11 was omitted because of elevated
serum transaminase. Neutrophil engrafment was on day 19, platelet
engrafment on day 71 and complete chimerism was determined on
day 21.
Because no GVHD was observed, CSP was stopped on day 95,
and prednisolone on day 251. He became free of immunoglobulin
supplementation one year afer CBT. Tere were no signifcant
infection episodes afer CBT.
5 and 1/2 years afer CBT, he began to complain of occasional
dry cough, which resolved easily under cough remedy. A couple of
months later, he sufered from severe cough and dyspnea with no
fever. Auscultation revealed fne crackles on both lungs, and his
oxygen saturation was 92% in room air. Chest X-ray presented marked
consolidation of bronchioles (Figure 1). Under the suspicion of
LONIPC, prednisolone (1 mg/kg/day) was started, which ameliorated
his symptoms rapidly. Serum soluble IL-2R was slightly elevated to 937
U/ml (normal value: 145-519), and serum KL-6 was 458 U/ml (normal
value: 0-500). Involvement of pathogens including RSV, CMV and
fungi was excluded from the later examinations. He has been placed on
oral prednisolone with clarithromycin (5 mg/kg/day) and futicasone
inhalation (twice daily). Tree years later, he has been placed on home
oxygen therapy and lung transplantation has been scheduled.
Discussion
Between 2001 and 2011, 72 pediatric patients (7m-22y8m;
7y3m ± 6y8m [mean ± SD]) have received 77 allogeneic stem cell
transplantations in our institute. 9 patients (13.4%) in 67 patients who
survived more than 3 months afer SCT developed LONIPC (Table 1:
observation period; 1155-5145 days). Multivariate analysis revealed
myeloablative conditioning regimen and chronic GVHD as signifcant
risk factors of LONIPC (data not shown). Unexpectedly, two patients
developed LONIPC more than fve years afer HSCT and one patient
died of respiratpry failure 30 months afer diagnosis of LONIPC.
As shown in Table 1, LONIPC was closely related with chronic
GVHD also in our experience. Unexpectedly, two patients had no