Stages of Transplant Therapy
Pre-BMT evaluation- required testing and education prior to transplant
If you will be having an autologous or allogeneic transplant, you will be required to undergo one to two days of testing to determine if you are medically able to withstand the rigors of a blood or marrow transplant.
The majority of your testing will be done at our outpatient clinic and at the Northside Hospital Tower building. It is possible that some of the testing will occur at Northside Hospital- Atlanta location.
Your cellular therapy clinical coordinator will be responsible for coordinating and organizing your pre-BMT evaluation studies. Your referring physician will oversee your pre-transplant testing and will communicate the testing results with you.
Patient testing will include:
Extensive blood work that will include infectious disease testing
Chest X-ray
CAT scan of head, chest, abdomen and pelvis or PET scan
EKG, Echocardiogram (heart test)
Pulmonary Function Test (PFT’s) (breathing test)
Bone marrow biopsy
Lumbar Puncture- May be ordered by your physician.
Comprehensive psycho-social testing with BMT Health Psychologist
Additional tests if ordered by your physician or required by your insurance carrier.
If an autologous patient will need a bone marrow harvest, a Northside Hospital pre-operative surgical evaluation will be required.
You will have a central venous catheter placed prior to initiation of your transplant therapy.
To better understand the transplant pre-BMT evaluation process, please refer to Frequently Asked Questions- Allogeneic, Frequently Asked Questions-Autologous, and website section Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ.
Patient education is an important aspect of the pre-BMT evaluation process:
You and a caregiver will have an interdisciplinary education day.
You will be given information on the transplant process, fertility, infection prevention and detailed information regarding your medications and chemotherapy schedule.
Additional fertility information can be found at www.fertilehope.org. Prior to the start of therapy, if a fertility consult is needed, we will be happy to coordinate a consultation.
Once you start treatment, for your transplant you will NOT be able to drive.
Reviewing your test results with your transplant physician and team
At the time of your pre-BMT evaluation testing, all transplant candidates and donors will also be required to meet with their BMT physician, advanced practice providers, cellular therapy clinical coordinator, clinical BMT pharmacist, Atlanta Blood Services, health psychologist, and if applicable, a member of the clinical research team. The NH-BMT team is committed to ensuring a potential BMT patient and a donor fully understand and is educated on what is required to have a transplant or to donate blood or marrow stem cells.
Allogeneic donor testing will include:
HLA tissue typing to determine if a sibling, family member or unrelated donor is a suitable donor.
Extensive blood work that will include infectious disease testing.
EKG
Chest X-ray
Additional tests if ordered by your physician or insurance carrier.
For allogeneic bone marrow donors, you will need to donate two units of your own blood prior to the harvest procedure that will be given back to you at the time of marrow collection.
For allogeneic bone marrow donors, a Northside Hospital pre-operative surgical evaluation will be required.
For allogeneic peripheral blood donors, you will be evaluated by our collection nurses to see if you will need to have a temporary central venous catheter placed for the collection procedure.
To better understand the transplant Pre-BMT evaluation process, please refer to Donor pre-BMT Self Care Guidelines.