2018 Volume 64 Issue 6 Pages 733-741
Factors triggering the onset of transfusion-associated circulatory overload (TACO), a type of heart failure associated with blood transfusion, depend on patient characteristics. We analyzed the clinical features of patients who developed TACO and patients who only developed high blood pressure, which is a diagnostic characteristic of TACO, in our hospital. We found that monitoring blood pressure was important for identifying patients with early stage TACO. The patients with increased blood pressure and risk factors for TACO tended to have moderate to severe hypertension. In contrast, the patient with TACO, who had both risk factors for heart disease and age older than 80 years, tended to show a mild increase followed by a decrease in blood pressure. In addition, tachycardia was observed in the patients with TACO before transfusion, suggesting that it is important to perform pulse monitoring in patients with TACO. Fever is also considered a warning symptom for TACO in patients with pneumonia and septicemia. The time of onset for fever ranged from 30 minutes to 5.5 hours after starting blood transfusion, suggesting that observations for blood transfusion reactions should be carefully performed for at least 6 hours after transfusion.
