Nation's Blood Research Articles

An evaluation of blood components inventory management during Hajj and Umrah season at Makkah hospitals

Objectives: The current study aims to utilize blood bank data collected from the Army forces hospital in Makkah to improve transfusion services at Makkah hospitals and evaluate the inventory system during the Hajj season.
 Methods: Three years' results showed that blood centre production is not constant, with an average of 1800 units during Hajj season that includes Cryo (450), FFP (450), PLT (450), and PRBC (450) units. Moreover, data indicated that the average usage of units is 1119 during the same season (120 Cryo, 424 FFP, 207 PLT and 368 PRBC).
 Results: This demonstrated that the inventory of blood units fluctuates during the year with an overproduction of Cryo (80%), FFP (67%), PLT (83%) and PRBC (57%) units in Hajj Season. It can be concluded that the manner and effectiveness with which the present issues in Makkah blood banking are having a major impact on the current system used to obtain the nation's blood supply and the safety, adequacy, and operational cost of that supply.
 Conclusion: The current study recommends building a generic data warehouse with smart decision support systems that use artificial intelligence to maintain blood bank production and inventory system during the year, especially during Hajj and Umrah seasons.

Қазақ хандығы дәуіріндегі әйелдердің қоғамдық-саяси рөлі (ХV-ХІХ ғғ.)

The Kazakh Khanate is the source of national statehood. The study of the history of Kazakhstani society should cover a wide range of issues, including social, political, economic, spiritual culture and national ideology. Analysis of the history of various social groups in the public life of the Kazakh community, including the analysis of the historical role of women in society, is relevant. From a historical point of view, it was believed that the social and cultural life of Kazakhstan was largely patriarchal, but upon further study of the topic it can be seen that in public relations, the patriarchal and matriarchal character went in parallel. The fact that the burden of social responsibility in Kazakh society is borne by both men and women can be seen in the foundations of customary law in the steppe laws. The very stability of the family in Kazakh society is also the result of the narrative of national values. A man protects the earth, a woman protects the nation, because the role of a woman as a mother has a special influence on the formation of a child's language skills, worldview values, and life principles. The purity of the nation's blood is directly related to the strong national principles and family traditions of the Kazakh people. It is important to recognize and appreciate the phenomenon of women in social history, since, on the one hand, it concerns issues of the nationality code, on the other, it depends on the national spiritual nature and foundations of civilization. This article presents a study of the social and political life of women on historical examples of the public life of the Kazakh Khanate.

A cross-sectional study of prevalence, distribution, cause, and impact of blood product recalls in the United States

AbstractDefective blood products that are recalled because of safety or potency deviations can trigger adverse health events and constrict the nation's blood supply chain. However, the underlying characteristics and impact of blood product recalls are not fully understood. In this study, we identified 4700 recall events, 7 reasons for recall, and 144 346 units affected by recalls. Using geospatial mapping of the newly defined county-level recall event density, we discovered hot spots with high prevalence and likelihood of blood product recall events. Distribution patterns and distribution distances of recalled blood products vary significantly between product types. Blood plasma is the most recalled product (87 980 units), and leukocyte-reduced products (34 230 units) are recalled in larger numbers than non-leukocyte-reduced products (8076 units). Donor-related reasons (92 382 units) and sterility deviations (22 408 units) are the major cause of blood product recalls. Monetary loss resulting from blood product recalls is estimated to be $17.9 million, and economic sensitivity tests show that donor-related reasons and sterility deviations contribute most to the overall monetary burden. A total of 2.8 million days was required to resolve recall events, and probabilistic survival time analysis shows that sterility deviations and contamination took longer to resolve because of their systemic effect on blood collection and processing. Our studies demonstrate that better donor screening procedures, rigorous sterility requirements, improved containment methods, and mitigation of recall events in high-prevalence regions will enable a more robust blood supply chain.

Proceedings of the Food and Drug Administration public workshop on pathogen reduction technologies for blood safety 2018 (Commentary, p. 3026).

On November 29, 2018, experts in the field of infectious diseases, pathogen reduction technologies (PRTs) and other participants from blood centers, academia, and industry gathered at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) White Oak Campus in Silver Spring, Maryland, for a 2‐day public workshop entitled “Pathogen Reduction Technologies for Blood Safety.” The workshop opened with welcome remarks from Dr. Nicole Verdun, Director, Office of Blood Research and Review (OBRR), Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), FDA, followed by introductory remarks from Dr. Peter Marks, Director, CBER, FDA. The first day of the workshop focused on blood‐borne infectious agents and their impact on blood safety, experiences of the American Red Cross, and other blood establishments in implementing FDA‐approved pathogen inactivation (PI) technology for plasma and platelets (PLTs) in the United States and novel PRTs under consideration for whole blood (WB) and red blood cells (RBCs). The second day opened with welcome remarks from Dr. Chintamani Atreya, Associate Director for Research, OBRR, CBER, FDA. The focus was on emerging innovations relevant to PRTs and potential alternatives to PRTs. The workshop concluded with remarks on insights for future research and development in this area for blood and blood product safety from infectious agents. A brief introduction of each session by the session moderator followed by a summary of the speaker presentation as submitted by the moderator and speaker are reported here.

Busting Broncos and Breaking New Ground: Reassessing the Legacies of Canadian Cowboys John Ware and Tom Three Persons

John Ware, a black Canadian settler, and Tom Three Persons, a Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy) member of the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe), existed at the intersections of the recently colonized Northwest Territories and southern Alberta. Popular narrative accounts of their exceptional achievements as ranchers and rodeo athletes largely disregard the historical contexts within which these men of color lived. To understand the legacies of Three Persons and Ware, we must move beyond idealized images and mythologizing to engage with the complexity of the lived experiences on Canada's prairie frontier.

Evolution of the nation's blood supply system.

Evolution of the nation's blood supply system.

Motivating first-time, group O blood donors to return: Rationale and design of a randomized controlled trial of a post-donation telephone interview

First-time blood donors are essential to the US donor pool, providing nearly a third of all donations. Unfortunately, there are a wide variety of obstacles to repeat donation and new donors are extremely difficult to retain. Because each donor experiences a unique set of deterrents, we developed a post-donation interview based on motivational interview principles in order to flexibly address individual barriers. The primary aim of this randomized clinical trial is to examine retention of first-time, group O blood donors who are randomly assigned to receive either a telephone-delivered interview with motivational and action planning components or a standard-of-care control call approximately six weeks after their donation. Measures of donation attitude, perceived behavioral control, intention, and motivational autonomy will be measured before and after the telephone contact using online surveys, and donation attempts will be tracked for one year using blood center donor databases. We hypothesize that, compared to controls, donors who receive the telephone interview will be more likely to make a donation attempt over the following year. In addition, we will examine possible mechanisms of action of the interview using key predictors of donation behavior as described by Self Determination Theory (i.e., motivational autonomy) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (i.e., attitude, perceived behavioral control, and intention). Results of this intervention may help to support a novel strategy to enhance retention of selected blood donors in an effort to better meet the nation's blood supply needs.

How would I establish a perioperative blood salvage program?

Nearly one-quarter of the nation's blood supply is transfused to surgical patients. In many institutions, blood management programs that include autotransfusion (perioperative blood salvage) have been developed to decrease the need for allogeneic transfusion in eligible surgical patients. This article reviews management concepts related to an autotransfusion service.

Clinical impact of blood storage lesions

Recent reports suggest that transfusion of old red blood cell (RBC) units (>2 weeks) was associated with increased risks of postoperative complications and higher mortality rate caught public attention (Yap et al., Ann Thorac Surg 2008; 86:554-559 and Koch et al., 2008; 358:1229-1239). This rekindled the decades old discussion regarding the impact of RBC aging and storage lesions in patient care. The objectives of this review are to provide readers with an overview of the process of banking RBC that may have an impact on its quality, the reported clinical impact of storage lesions, the consequences of transfusing new RBC units only to the nation's blood supply and potential solutions that may improve the feasibility of blood banks to issue new blood units only.

Evaluation of antimicrobial peptides as novel bactericidal agents for room temperature–stored platelets

A single cost-effective pathogen inactivation approach would help to improve the safety of our nation's blood supply. Several methods and technologies are currently being studied to help reduce bacterial contamination of blood components. There is clearly need for simple and easy-to-use pathogen inactivation techniques specific to plasma, platelets (PLTs), and red blood cells. In this report, we introduce a novel proof of concept: using known therapeutic antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as bactericidal agents for room temperature-stored PLT concentrates (PCs). Nine synthetic AMPs, four from PLT microbicidal protein-derived peptides (PD1-4) and five Arg-Trp (RW) repeat peptides containing one to five repeats, were tested for bactericidal activity in plasma and PC samples spiked with Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Bacillus cereus. A 3-log reduction of viable bacteria was considered as the bactericidal activity of a given peptide. In both plasma alone and PCs, RW3 peptide demonstrated bactericidal activity against S. aureus, S. epidermidis, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, and K. pneumoniae; PD4 and RW2 against P. aeruginosa; and RW4 against K. pneumoniae. The activity of each of these four peptides against the remaining bacterial species in the test panel resulted in less than a 3-log reduction in the number of viable bacteria and hence considered ineffective. These findings suggest a new approach to improving the safety of blood components, demonstrating the potential usefulness of screening therapeutic AMPs against selected bacteria to identify suitable bactericidal agents for stored plasma, PCs, and other blood products.

For the record

It is, to be sure, a bold claim. But the head of the nation's blood program says the days of incoherence in Canada's myriad organ donation programs are entirely numbered. Canadian Blood Services Chief Executive Officer Dr. Graham Sher says the federal, provincial (except Quebec) and territorial

Fresh blood for everyone? Balancing availability and quality of stored RBCs

Effective, prolonged ex vivo storage of red blood cells is an essential requirement for inventory management of each nation's blood supply. Current blood storage techniques are the development of a century of research. Blood undergoes metabolic and structural deterioration during prolonged ex vivo storage. Current regulatory requirements for the limit of blood storage do not consider oxygen delivery or clinical outcomes. Recently, concern that stored blood may produce adverse outcomes in recipients has sparked renewed interest in studies that can evaluate the clinical impact of fresh vs. stored blood. In 2008, a retrospective study of outcomes among transfused patients undergoing cardiac surgery suggested that blood stored for more than 14 days prior to transfusion led to higher perioperative mortality compared with blood stored for less than 14 days. Here, we critically examine the details of the above-mentioned study. Numerous substantial flaws in data analysis and presentation may have led to an erroneous conclusion about the effect of blood storage age and perioperative mortality. Given the fundamental importance of a safe and adequate blood supply to national healthcare, the question of the proper storage age for blood should be studied using a prospective study design.

Mayo Clinic and the Origins of Blood Banking

Mayo Clinic and the Origins of Blood Banking

West Nile Virus Adheres to Human Red Blood Cells in Whole Blood

Background. West Nile virus (WNV) is endemic in the United States. It is transmissible by blood transfusion, and the nation's blood supply is currently screened for WNV. Documented transmission of WNV infection through red blood cell (RBC) units in which the plasma co-component had a low viral load could be explained, in at least 1 instance, by cell-association of WNV; in this case, the RBC unit was released as negative by minipool nucleic acid testing (NAT) performed on plasma but was intermittently NAT-positive when subsequently tested as an individual sample. We hypothesized that a proportion of WNV bound to blood cells and was not measured by NAT performed on plasma samples. We have investigated whether WNV binds to RBCs, leading to reduction of WNV RNA detection by NAT performed on plasma samples.Methods. Equal volumes of leukoreduced RBCs and their corresponding plasma components from 20 blood donors with NAT results that were positive for WNV were tested in 5 replicates by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction TaqMan for WNV. In addition, aliquots from 8 of the RBC units were tested by infectivity assays using Vero cells.Results. The reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction TaqMan assay showed that the viral load in the RBC components exceeded that in the corresponding plasma units by 1 order of magnitude. In addition, viruses associated with the RBCs were infectious in Vero cell cultures.Conclusions. These observations reinforce the notion that extraction of viral RNA from whole blood could improve assay sensitivity for blood donor screening and further reduce the residual risk of WNV transmission through transfusion.

Understanding the donor can correct the nation's blood imbalance

Understanding the donor can correct the nation's blood imbalance

Eternal Stand

Eternal Stand Kamilah Aisha Moon (bio) The hand on a statue of Jefferson Davis in the Jefferson Davis Library holds the confederate flag, blown there by the winds of Katrina, Sept. 12, 2005, in Biloxi, Miss. The historic grounds withstood the strength of Hurricane Camille in 1969, the worst recorded hurricane to hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but buckled under the strength of Katrina. —CBS News caption Some try to lynch his legacy, rip what's stitched in the nation's blood. But Jefferson won't be moved— a bold, living relic of stone. Ask the fields, ask the floods. He refuses to surrender his home. He spent his breath to keep this home. Flew the "stars and bars," whose legacy, long after the war, is buoyed by floods of praise and staunch, southern blood. His heirs picked a slab of stone to chisel legs that won't be moved. His rebel heart has never moved, grounded firmly in the dust of home. Dark rain dries on cheeks of stone, warmed in the sun of this land's legacy. His shriveled veins, clear of blood, yet nothing—not the vast floods of Camille, or the fresh floods of Katrina—washes his legacy [End Page 1062] hell-bent on not being moved. Yes, even evil needs a home where roses bloom bright as blood, frame front porches made of stone. God can't rinse the sneer from stone, as the gulf fills with blood. Rivers rage through his home, papers and books lost to the floods but the history won't be moved— hurricanes too weak for this legacy. Presidents bow to his legacy; prejudice bequeathed by blood. Rescue squads won't be moved to save . . . bodies swollen stiff as stone. Spirits ferried by the floods to heaven, a kinder, gentler home. Jefferson's home ravaged by floods; but his beloved legacy hasn't moved. His stone hand clutches a flag, red as blood. Kamilah Aisha Moon Kamilah Aisha Moon, a Nashville native, received the MFA in creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has been published in a number of periodicals and anthologies, including Essence, Mosaic, Obsidian III and Gathering Ground. Copyright © 2006 Charles H. Rowell

Alleviating blood shortages in a resource‐constrained environment

The nation devotes considerable resources to the collection, processing, and distribution of blood products. Nonetheless, shortages of virtually every blood component persist. Economic theory suggests that the national blood supply can be increased either by increasing the level of resources used in the collection and production of blood components or by utilizing existing resources more efficiently. This study uses data envelopment analysis to analyze the efficiency of 70 blood centers to determine the extent to which operational efficiency can be improved, the increase in the nation's blood supply that would result, and management strategies that would lead to such improvements. Data were collected from the AABB 2002-2003 Directory of Community Blood Centers. The study found that roughly half of the 70 blood centers studied are efficient. The remaining blood centers collectively can both increase outputs and decrease some inputs. If the inefficient blood centers were to eliminate half of their inefficiency, then systemwide output of platelets would be increased by 17 percent, cryoprecipitate by 12 percent, plasma by 10 percent, and red blood cells by 7 percent. Inefficient blood centers have little opportunity to reduce full-time employees or reduce expenditures; however, they can decrease their use of part-time employees by 10 percent and volunteers by 9 percent. The results indicate that efficiency improvements would help to alleviate the nation's persistent blood shortages. These findings can be used by blood center managers to identify management interventions that can improve operational efficiency, resulting in greater output with existing levels of resources.

Regulatory requirements for testing the donor blood supply

Abstract Over the last 30 years, there have been tremendous advances made in protecting the nation's blood supply from dangerous pathogens. From serologic testing to antigen detection to the application of nucleic acid testing, developments in technology have contributed to the reduction in the risk of transfusion transmission of hepatitis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and West Nile virus. The Centers of Biologics Research of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has legal enforcement power and is responsible for oversight of the collection and manufacture of blood and blood products. The American Association of Blood Banks is a major voluntary standard setting organization that publishes standards, some going beyond the requirements of the FDA, to ensure blood safety. This report will highlight the major topics in blood safety and the regulatory and quality requirements that shape transfusion medicine.

A Novel Semiquantitative Fluorescence-Based Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay for Rapid Simultaneous Detection of Bacterial and Parasitic Pathogens from Blood

A multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay was developed for the rapid simultaneous detection of category A select bacterial agents (Bacillus anthracis and Yersinia pestis) and parasitic pathogens (Leishmania species) in blood using the Cepheid Smart Cycler platform. B. anthracis (Sterne) and Yersinia. pseudotuberculosis were used in the assay for optimization for B. anthracis and Y. pestis, respectively. The specificity of the target amplicons [protective antigen gene of B. anthracis and rRNA genes of other pathogens or human (internal control)] was evaluated by staining the amplicons with SYBR Green I and determining their individual melting temperatures (T(m)). As a novel approach for pathogen semiquantitation, the Tm peak height of the amplicon was correlated with a known standard curve of pathogen-spiked samples. This assay was able to detect DNA in blood spiked with less than 50 target cells/ml for all of the pathogens. The sensitivity of this assay in blood was 100% for the detection of Leishmania donovani from leishmaniasis patients and B. anthracis (Sterne) from symptomatic mice. The time necessary for performing this assay including sample preparation was less than 1.5 hours, making this a potentially useful method for rapidly diagnosing and monitoring the efficacy of drugs or vaccines in infected individuals.

Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Further Safeguards Nation's Blood Supply

Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Further Safeguards Nation's Blood Supply