Blastocystis and Gut Microbiome: A Review of the Current Understanding

Background: Platelets serve as the primary defense mechanism against hemorrhage.Neonatal thrombocytopenia is a common hemostatic abnormality among newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and using prophylactic platelet transfusion resulted in a higher rate of death or significant bleeding.Objectives: This study aimed to compare the outcome of using Platelet Mass Index (PMI) versus Platelet Count (PC) guidelines in prophylactic platelet transfusion.Methodology: This single-blinded, randomized controlled trial was conducted on 140 neonates with a <100,000/ml platelet count admitted to the NICU.Results: A significantly higher percentage of patients needed platelet transfusion in the PC guideline group vs. the PMI guideline group (77.1% vs 17.1%).Further, there was a statistically significantly higher percentage of hemorrhage, pulmonary hemorrhage, and mortality in the PC group vs. the PMI group (24.3% vs 10%, p=0.025, 17.1% vs 5.7%, p=0.034v 22.9% vs 10%, p-value=0.040,respectively).Conclusion: This study demonstrated that transfusion strategies based on PMI guidelines resulted in higher post-transfusion platelet counts compared to the PC approach.Also, significant improvements in clinical outcomes were observed in the PMI group, including lower bleeding rates, intracranial hemorrhage, and mortality.