BACKGROUND: We compare neuropathological abnormalities in children and adults after bone marrow transplantation (BMT) by means of autopsy in the Department of Medical Pathology, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Brazil. METHODS: Autopsy reports of 180 patients were reviewed. They were divided in two groups: patients under 15 years old and those 15 or older. Age, gender, clinical diagnosis at time of BMT, survival time, neuropathological abnormalities and cause of death were analyzed. RESULTS: In children (26.6% of total) and in the adult group (73.4% of total), the main clinical diagnoses prior to BMT were, respectively, severe aplastic anemia (31.2%) and chronic myeloid leukemia (36.3%). The mean survival time for children was 102.6 days and for adults, 185.9 days after BMT. Brain lesions were considered cause of death in 20.8% of pediatric cases and 11.3% of the adult group. Neuropathological abnormalities were morphologically similar in children and adults, with the following respectively prevalence: cerebrovascular diseases in 58.3 and 56% (p = 0.8655), neurotoxoplasmosis in 6.2% and 3% (p = 0.3856) and infections in 27 and 25.7% (p = 0.8489). CONCLUSIONS: The pediatric patients had shorter survival than adults, with increasing prevalence of neurotoxoplasmosis, and brain lesions were considered cause of death in twice as many as compared to adult patients.
Bone marrow; transplantation; Brain diseases; Autopsy
