Clinical Score for Risk Stratification in Febrile Thrombocytopenia

Introduction: The monsoon and peri-monsoon season often entail, a high patient influx with fever and thrombocytopenia. In severe cases, blood transfusion is necessary, but as there are no guidelines or a precise laboratory cut-off for platelets at which transfusion is requisite, unwarranted blood transfusions adversely affect the patients and overwhelm blood banks. Kshirsagar P et al., developed a risk assessment score system for febrile thrombocytopenia to aid in determining therapeutic intervention. Validation of this scoring system on a larger sample size is imperative, taking into consideration both aetiology and comorbidities. Aim: To validate clinical scoring system developed by Kshirshagar P et al., and to correlate etiology, comorbidities and platelet count with clinical score and outcome in patients with febrile thrombocytopenia. Materials and Methods: The prospective observational study was conducted in a tertiary centre in Kolar. Patients >18 years with temperature >99 degrees F and platelet count <1,50,000/cumm, were scored according to Kshirshagar P et al., scoring system and then categorised into low (<= 7), moderate (8-15) and highrisk (16-26) groups. Based on pulse, temperature, respiratory rate, blood pressure, platelet count, central nervous system, respiratory, haematological, hepatic and renal complications, the outcome was assessed for each group. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 software. Non parametric Chi-square, unpaired Student's t-test and one-way ANOVA were applied in comparative analysis results between different groups. The p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Between June-December 2017 (monsoon period) 465 patients were admitted with febrile thrombocytopenia. Based on the clinical score, 199 patients (43%) were in low risk group, 240 (52%) in moderate and 26 (5%) in high risk group. All the patients in high risk group had extended hospital stay and required ICU support. In our study, nine high-risk patients died, highlighting the significant association between high risk group and outcome (p-value <0.001). Elderly (p-value <0.024) and patients diagnosed with dengue or undetermined cause (p-value <0.003 and p-value <0.016) also had high risk score and poor outcome thereby validating the clinical scoring system. No significant relationship (p-value=0.35) between the initial platelet presentation and outcome of the patient was observed. During the course of the study, 135 patients had platelets transfusion and at least 16% of these platelet transfusion could have been avoided if the risk score were calculated in the early phase of treatment development. Conclusion: Total risk score can predict the severity of illness, the need for transfusion and the probable outcome. The scoring system is easily reproducible and can be used at bedside to evaluate patients with febrile thrombocytopenia and help plan its management, including the need for platelet transfusion. This score also helps to prognosticate patients'outcomes to optimise care and survival rate of the patients.