Prognostic significance of Erythroblasts in peripheral blood of burn patients

Prognostic significance of Erythroblasts in peripheral blood of burn patients Introduction: Changes in haematopoieses which occur in humans following a burn injury may have important effects on morbidity and mortality. In patients suffering from a variety of severe diseases the presence of erythroblasts in peripheral blood is known to be indicative of a negative prognosis. However, the prognostic significance of erythroblasts in peripheral blood of burn patients has not yet been estimated. Material and Methods: We analyzed 464 consecutive burn patients, of whom 81 did not survive their injuries (17.4%). Together with erythroblasts in blood, data on age, sex, total burned surface area (TBSA), third degree burn, inhalation trauma (IHT), white blood count, CRP and hemoglobin were studied. Results: The mortality rate of patients with erythroblasts in peripheral blood (n=53) amounted to 55.5% (n=30) (TBSA:39%, ABSI-Score: 9,05), which is significantly higher (p<0.001) than the mortality rate of patients without erythroblasts (12.4%, n=51) (TBSA:18.69%, ABSI: 5,97). None of the 10 patients with more than 1000 erythroblasts x 106/l survived. Erythroblasts were detected for the first time on average 10±4 days (median:7 days) after admission and 15.53±6 days (median:8 days) before death. Discussion: Detection of erythroblasts in burn patients indicates a high probabilty of mortality, providing physicians with a strong prognostic method to identify seriously threatened patients. It may also be possible to incorporate erythroblasts into further refinements of burn scores. The precision of predictive ABSI-Score in combination with EBL is 96%.