A method to estimate the incidence of transfusion reactions for transfusion-treated diseases in Chinese hospitals

Although transfusion reactions are directly related to transfusion components, transfusion components are clinically related to the diseases afflicting patients. As some transfusion reactions can be life-threatening, estimating the incidence of transfusion reactions (which, in this study, are strictly defined as allergic and febrile non-haemolytic transfusion reactions) of certain categories of diseases is helpful for clinicians. According to the reported blood use of specific departments, the numbers of transfusion patients in these departments can be estimated. By the Association rule mining algorithm, the categories of diseases that often correlate with transfusion reactions have been screened for. It is found that the diseases belonging to C00-C97, D00-D48, D50-D89, K00-K93, N00-N99 and O00-O99 (ICD-10) often correlate with transfusion reactions. Platelet transfusion patients whose diseases belong to C00-C97 encounter transfusion reactions with an incidence of about 1%, which is much higher than the average. The incidence of transfusion reactions in patients whose diseases belong to K00-K93 –who undergo plasma transfusions –might be higher than the average, as the lower bound of this incidence is equivalent to the average incidence. Based on this study, it is suggested that attention be paid to patients whose diseases belong to C00-C97 –who undergo platelet transfusions –to prevent them from experiencing allergic transfusion reactions.