Giving more blood to anemic patients after a heart attack can save lives, according to a Rutgers Health study.
The study, published in NEJM dataconfirms research conducted in 2023, according to which the death rate or recurrent heart attacks were more frequent in anemic patients who received less blood.
Jeffrey L. Carson, professor and distinguished professor of medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, led both studies. The 2023 trial – referred to as MINT (myocardial infarction and transfusion) – looked at transfusions in anemic patients after a heart attack.
After that 2023 trial, Carson designed a blood transfusion study that combined data from similar trials to create more accurate estimates of treatment effects.
Working with researchers in France and the United States, Carson obtained data from four clinical trials evaluating blood transfusions in 4,311 heart attack patients. These trials included patients who had a heart attack and low blood counts. Half of the patients received fewer blood transfusions and the other half received more blood transfusions. The trials compared the incidence of death at 30 days or recurrent heart attacks and death at six months.
The results of this analysis, recently published in NEJM data, did not definitively find that giving fewer blood transfusions increased patients’ risk of death or heart attack at 30 days, but suggested that using fewer transfusions was associated with an increased risk of death at six months.
In the original clinical trial, a large proportion of patients had a previous heart attack, heart failure, diabetes or kidney disease. The average age of the participants was 72, with 45% women.
The researchers compared the incidence of the primary outcome of death or recurrent heart attack 30 days after enrollment in the trial. Although not statistically significant, the study found that the incidence of death or recurrent heart attack was 2.4% lower when a liberal approach was used.
The results of this analysis show that giving more blood to anemic heart attack patients can save lives in six months.”
Jeffrey L. Carson, Professor and Distinguished Professor, Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University
Both studies were funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.
For nearly two decades, Carson has studied the effects of red blood cell transfusion strategies on providing optimal treatment for patients. His work helped establish transfusion guidelines in 2012 used by doctors to inform patient care, updates of which were announced last year in Journal of the American Medical Association emphasizing an individualized approach to adults and children that takes into account patients’ underlying medical problems, patient preferences, and symptoms.
