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Negative impact of chronic graft-versus-host disease and glucocorticoid on the recovery of physical function after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 54, pages 994–1003 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Quality of life of patients who undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) temporally deteriorates and recovers over several years. We retrospectively evaluate the impact of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and glucocorticoid on physical recovery. We included 162 patients who underwent their first allogeneic HSCT between October 2010 and December 2015 in a single hospital. All patients are planned to undergo physical function tests before and 1, 3, 12 months after allogeneic HSCT. Scores of knee extension strength and distance covered in the 6-min walk test (6MWT) recovered at the 12-month assessment. Both chronic GVHD and high dose glucocorticoid were associated with delayed recovery of body mass index (BMI), hand grip strength, knee extension strength, and duration of standing on one foot. Lung GVHD and high dose glucocorticoid had negative impact on the distance covered in the 6MWT. A multivariate analysis revealed that chronic GVHD and glucocorticoid was an independent risk factor for decreased BMI and delayed recovery of muscle strength, respectively. Our results suggest that high-risk patients who have chronic GVHD or who receive glucocorticoid therapy may require reduced dose of glucocorticoid and long-term physical support to recover physical function after transplantation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the physical trainers at our institute who offered physical training and collected physical function data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hematology, Saitama Medical Center, Jichi Medical University, Saitama, Japan

    Jin Hayakawa, Shun-ichi Kimura, Ayumi Gomyo, Masaharu Tamaki, Yu Akahoshi, Naonori Harada, Tomotaka Ugai, Machiko Kusuda, Kazuaki Kameda, Hidenori Wada, Yuko Ishihara, Koji Kawamura, Kana Sakamoto, Miki Sato, Kiriko Terasako-Saito, Misato Kikuchi, Hideki Nakasone, Shinichi Kako & Yoshinobu Kanda

  2. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Saitama Medical Center, Jichi Medical University, Saitama, Japan

    Daijiro Miyamura

  3. Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Jichi Medical University Hospital, Shimotsuke, Japan

    Yoshinobu Kanda

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  1. Jin Hayakawa
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Correspondence to Yoshinobu Kanda.

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Hayakawa, J., Miyamura, D., Kimura, Si. et al. Negative impact of chronic graft-versus-host disease and glucocorticoid on the recovery of physical function after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 54, 994–1003 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-018-0365-4

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