Higher platelet transfusion threshold appeared to increase risk for death and major bleeding among preterm infants with severe thrombocytopenia, according to results of a randomized trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

“Our trial highlights the importance of trials of platelet transfusion involving patients with conditions other than hematologic cancers,” Anna Curley, MD, consultant neonatologist at National Maternity Hospital in Dublin, and colleagues wrote. “It [also] adds to previous data indicating a tenuous relationship between platelet count and bleeding.”