The risk of highly likely/probable TRALI due to FFP has fallen from 15.5 per million units issued during 1999 through 2004 to 3.2 per million during 2005 through 2006 (p = 0.0079) and from 14.0 per million to 5.8 per million for PLTs.

No abstract

No evidence has been found, analyzed by intention to treat, that use of WBC-reduced, BCD, or WCF RBCs reduces postoperative inpatient infection in patients undergoing cardiac bypass surgery.

These findings suggest that universal LD has further reduced the already low risk of TA-GVHD in immunocompetent recipients and has altered the profile of PTP cases.

TRALI is the most common serious adverse effect of blood transfusion in our hospital. Antibodies to HLA class II antigens should be looked for routinely when investigating a possible case of TRALI.

We describe a streamlined method for the simultaneous identification of alleles of the human platelet antigens (HPA) 1-5. The method employs the polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP). Although PCR-SSP has been applied to HPA genotyping, all methods previously described have required different reaction mixes and PCR conditions. We have designed a set of sequence-specific primers for HPA 1-5 which react optimally under identical reaction and PCR conditions. Comparative testing with reference samples gave 100% concordance. The advantages of this method include speed; accuracy; smaller sample requirements and no reliance on human typing sera or platelet integrity. The method also has the potential to be applied to amniotic fluid. Simplified DNA techniques will lead to more extensive and proficient platelet antigen typing. This will facilitate accurate laboratory diagnosis of alloimmune thrombocytopenia and the provision of HPA-matched blood products.

Posttransfusion survival is lower than estimated in previous decades in other countries. This is probably due to a relative increase in use of transfusion for older patients and for medical indications. Our figures may be used to predict and stratify the risk of infections, such as variant CJD, amongst different groups of transfusion recipients.

The policy to exclude female donors from the production of fresh frozen plasma was associated with a decrease in the frequency of acute lung injury in patients undergoing repair of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.