Multivariate dimensions of hemotologic chaos indices for responders versus non-responders of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) after treatment with ptx/cipro/decadron: A qualitative study

Abstract

17540 Background: In our clinical study of 35 MDS patients who were treated with PTX/Cipro/Decadron, there was an 80% response rate in terms of achieving improved hematopoiesis (responders) during a 4-week period. The primary question of interest was, “What were the hematologic dynamic patterns that transpired between patients who responded versus those who did not?” The purpose of this study was an attempt to answer this question by applying chaos theory to peruse the underlying patterns that may have prognosis utility. Methods: Responders and non-responders were identified and were matched by age, sex, and FAB type. Only those patients who have sufficient and complete hematologic evaluations after treatment with at least 6 months follow-up to derive stable chaotic indices were included. The resulted sample was 3 patients from the non-responded group and 4 patients from the responded group. The three selected hematoloic parametes were white blood count, hemoglobin and platelets. The selected chaos index to indicate its magnitude of across time was the fractal dimension that has three components, namely capacity, information and correlational. Results: The mean ages for the non-responders and responders were 68 and 65, respectively. The median number of weeks evaluated was 38 for the non-responders and 35 weeks for the responders. The three hematologic parameters were analyzed simultaneously in the form of 3-dimensional space. Table indicates the chaos fractal indices for the two groups. Conclusion: Across the three indices, non-responders have an average of 7.4 % larger than responders, suggesting the former exhibited a relatively higher degree of “chaos” than the latter. For prognosis purpose, this result also suggests that patients who exhibit lower magnitude of the chaotic phenomena, will have a higher probability of responding to therapy. This work was done while the authors were at Rush-Presbyterian-St.Luke’s Medical Center. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.