Contemporary risk factors and outcomes of transfusion-associated circulatory overload.
Recently, a joint working group of members of the International Haemovigilance Network, the International Society of Blood Transfusion and AABB concluded that it is too early to develop a consensus on TACO, its definition, its reporting criteria and its risk factors. This was due to the fact that currently, insufficient published research was available to […]
Clinical predictors of and mortality in acute respiratory distress syndrome: Potential role of red cell transfusion.
The authors describe an association between increased risk of ARDS in critically ill patients and administration of an average of one additional red blood cell unit. Unfortunately, the quality of the red blood cells used with respect to storage time, additives and leukodepletion, and the administration of other blood products could not be assessed. It […]
Prior red blood cell transfusions in cancer patients increase the risk of subsequent transfusions with or without recombinant human erythropoietin management.
Couture et al. perform an interesting meta-analysis of 5 previously reported, placebo-controlled epoetin alfa studies in anemic cancer patients on chemotherapy. Their conclusions are simple and intuitive: previous blood transfusion and low baseline hemoglobin predict for future blood transfusions. However, I am not sure if their suggestion that earlier treatment with epoetin alfa necessarily prevents […]
Seroepidemiological survey of hepatitis C virus among commercial sex workers and pregnant women in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The article is of some interest in view of the contamination of commercial sex workers and pregnant women in a special region in Africa. The study can not conclusively discriminate between different routes of transmission of HCV, since transfusions and sexual behaviour of pregnant women have not been evaluated. There already exist better data that […]
Seroprevalence of human herpes virus 8 antibody in populations at high or low risk of transfusion, graft, or sexual transmission of viruses.
HHV-8 is a pathogenic virus. However, it is still unclear whether HHV-8 can be transmitted by blood transfusion. The article gives some evidence that blood transfusion is, if at all, a minor route for transmission of HHV-8, at least when leukodepleted blood is used. The major route is the sexual route. However, the real risk […]
TT virus genotype changes frequently in multiply transfused patients with hemophilia but rarely in patients with chronic hepatitis C and in healthy subjects.
TTV seems not to have clinical relevance. However, the publication is very important since it clearly shows that the virus inactivation of factor VIII and IX concentrates, at least those used in the patients investigated, is not totally effective in order to inactivate unenveloped viruses. – V. Kretschmer.
