There is an interest in a biomarker that could predict bone marrow engraftment of megakaryocytes following bone marrow or stem cell transplant which relates to the prospect of withholding platelet transfusion support when engraftment is imminent. Reducing the number of platelet transfusions would limit the exposure of the patient to the infectious disease risk associated with them and save expense to the patient and hospital. This 43 subject retrospective study of the temporal relationship between marrow engraftment and the peripheral blood reticulated platelet percentage (%rP), following bone marrow or stem cell transplant identified the threshold value for the %rP indicating marrow engraftment. Using the Abbott Cell-Dyn Sapphire hematology analyzer and its %rP parameter which is not strictly comparable to the Sysmex immature platelet fractionation (IPF), it was found that the %rP is valuable for this predictive purpose.
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