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Successful treatment of meningeal graft-versus-host disease in a haematopoietic stem cell transplant recipient

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Abstract

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) of the central nervous system is a rare complication following allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). It is a challenging disease process to confirm as biopsies of the involved tissues can be difficult to obtain safely, the clinical presentation can be non-specific and the differential diagnosis includes infection, drug toxicities, metabolic encephalopathy and disease relapse. We report a case of meningeal graft-versus-host disease in a young woman with relapsed acute myeloid leukaemia after a sibling allogeneic HSCT. The GVHD responded to immunosuppression with resolution of the clinical symptoms and radiological findings and has remained quiescent after a second allogeneic HSCT from an unrelated matched donor.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Haematology and Transfusion Medicine, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia

    Victoria Pechey & William Stevenson

  2. Department of Neurology, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia

    John Parratt

  3. Department of Radiology, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia

    Linh Vo

Authors
  1. Victoria Pechey
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  2. John Parratt
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  3. Linh Vo
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  4. William Stevenson
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Correspondence to Victoria Pechey.

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Pechey, V., Parratt, J., Vo, L. et al. Successful treatment of meningeal graft-versus-host disease in a haematopoietic stem cell transplant recipient. Int J Hematol 101, 203–206 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12185-014-1704-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12185-014-1704-x

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