Caspian Journal of Internal Medicine

Background: Nutritional support is a critical consideration in the care of individuals undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), given the metabolic alterations induced by intensive treatments. This study aimed to explore the correlation between nutritional status and the time to engraftment in HSCT patients at Dr. Kariadi General Hospital, Semarang, Indonesia.
Methods: This study included adult patients with malignant diseases who underwent autologous or allogeneic HSCT at Dr. Kariadi General Hospital between 2013 and 2023. Nutritional status was evaluated using body mass index (BMI), energy intake, and the type and duration of nutritional support. Neutrophil and platelet engraftment were defined as the time to sustained absolute neutrophil count (ANC) ≥500 cells/mm³ and platelet count ≥20 × 10⁹/L, respectively, and correlations between numerical variables were analyzed using Pearson’s test.
Results: A total of 45 HSCT patients were involved in this study. There was a significant negative correlation between nutritional intake and neutrophil engraftment (r = -0.776, p <0.001) and platelet engraftment (r= -0.72, P = 0.00), indicating that as the engraftment time increased, nutritional intake decreased. Furthermore, a positive but weak correlation (r = 0.24, P = 0.10) was found between BMI and time to engraftment.
Conclusion: The study highlights that nutritional status significantly influences engraftment time in HSCT patients, supporting the importance of comprehensive nutritional support to improve outcomes and shorten engraftment.