BACKGROUND: Transfusion requests are always more than the supply due to advances in health care delivery. Injudicious use of whole blood and blood components strains the transfusion services. This mandates the proper analysis of real need of transfusion and the discard of this scarce resource. MATERIALS & METHODS: Total 31143 voluntary and replacement donors donated blood during January 2012 to December 2014 in blood bank of tertiary care Government hospital in Central India. The donors record, transfusion transmitted infections (TTI) testing record, component preparation record & discard record during the same period were screened for analysis. RESULT: Out of total 31143 blood collection during study period TTI positive blood were 377 (1.21%) comprising of 13.4% of total discarded blood bags. Components prepared 19545 and discarded 1610 (8.2%). Among components discarded most common units were platelets due to date expiry followed by FFP discarded due to leakage of bag. CONCLUSION: Analysis of reasons of discard of whole blood and blood components helps in forming policies to reduce the gap between demand and supply at local as well as national level.

The present study was carried out to investigate risk factors for subclinical vitamin A deficiency in children under 6 years of age in the urban slums of Nagpur, India. The study included 308 nonxerophthalmic children selected randomly from the study population. On the basis of conjunctival impression cytology the prevalence of subclinical vitamin A deficiency was estimated to be 35.7 per cent. The current study recognised a significant association between female gender, illiterate mother, lower socioeconomic status, more than two children under 5 years of age at home, undernutrition, history of diarrhoea, measles, acute respiratory infections, and subclinical vitamin A deficiency on univariate analysis. Logistic regression analysis identified significance of female gender, more than two children under 5 years of age at home, undernutrition, and measles in the outcome of subclinical vitamin A deficiency. Estimates of attributable risk proportions and population attributable risk proportions for significant and preventable risk factors confirmed their etiological and preventable role in subclinical vitamin A deficiency respectively.

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Introduction: Computed tomography guided fine needle aspiration cytology is a safe and well established technique for the diagnosis of lung and mediastinal lesions. This study was carried out in the department of pathology in the tertiary health care and teaching institute where radiology department is well established. The aim was to study the cytomorphology of the spectrum of the lung and mediastinal lesions and to correlate the cytological diagnosis with the radiological diagnosis. Material and methods: Computed tomography guided fine needle aspiration cytology was done in 90 pateints after taking written consent of the patient. Patients were explained the benefits and risks of the procedure. The results were analysed. Results: A total of 90 patients were included in the study. There were 81 patients of lung lesions and nine patients of mediastinal lesions. There were 63(70%) males and 27(30%) females. Adequate aspirate was obtained in 77 patients giving the adequacy rate of 85.55%. Adenocarcinoma was the most common type of lung malignancy and Non Hodgkins Lymphoma was the most common malignancy in the mediastinum. Inflammatory lesions were seen in 13 cases. Granulomatous lesions were found in six patients. One interesting case of hydatid with aspergillosis was diagnosed on cytology smears, which on radiology was diagnosed as neoplastic. Pneumothorax was seen in three patients. No patient required chest tube insertion. Conclusion: Computed tomography guided fine needle aspiration cytology is a safe and reliable method for the diagnosis of lung and mediastinal lesions. It can help in early diagnosis and initiation of the treatment avoiding major surgical procedures.

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