Association of O blood type with the prognosis of acute necrotizing encephalopathy in childhood: A single-center cohort study

Background: Acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) of childhood is a rare but critical disease with global distribution. Few studies have focused on investigating the relationship between O blood type and the prognosis of ANE. Methods: We analyzed retrospectively the data of patients with ANE admitted to the Beijing Children's Hospital from March 2012 to February 2019. Baseline data, clinical characteristics, examination, treatment, and prognosis of O blood group were compared with those of the non-O blood group. Cox regression was used to observe the independent prognostic factors in ANE. Results: Thirty-one ANE patients were recruited, and 8 (25.8%) of these patients were in the O blood group. The rest (n = 23; 74.2%) were in the non-O blood group. No significant differences were found in the demographic characteristics, clinical features, examinations, and treatments between the two groups (p > 0.05). At 28 days after discharge, the overall survival rate of the O blood group was significantly higher than that of the non-O blood group (chi(2) = 5.630, p = 0.018). At 1 year after discharge, the survival quality of the O blood group was higher than that of the non-O blood group (p = 0.006). After adjusting for the confounding factors, Cox regression analysis showed that O blood type might be a protective factor in ANE [hazard ratio = 0.283, 95% CI = 0.081-0.988; p = 0.048]. Conclusions: O blood type may be a protective factor for patients with ANE. (C) 2021 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.