Plateletpheresis is a method used to remove platelet from the body either from random volunteer donors, patient's family members or HLA matched donors. A cross sectional study was carried out on 59 plateletpheresis donors aged between 18 and 55 years at National Blood Center (NBC), Kuala Lumpur. We compared the blood parameters before and after plateletpheresis and we found that the platelet count, FVIII, fibrinogen and thrombophilia markers anti-thrombin (AT), protein C and protein S were significantly reduced (p<0.05) with prolonged PT and APTT. There were significant changes in blood coagulation parameters but it is within acceptable range.

Background. We have previously shown that the deficiency of the gut enzyme intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP) is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in humans, and mice deficient in IAP develop the metabolic syndrome, a precipitant of T2DM and ischemic heart disease (IHD). We hypothesized that IAP deficiency might also be associated with IHD in humans. We aimed to determine the correlation between the IAP level and IHD in humans. Methods and Results. The IHD patients were recruited from the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the control healthy participants were recruited from a suburban community of Dhaka. We determined the IAP level in the stools of 292 IHD patients (187 males, 105 females) and 331 healthy control people (84 males, 247 females). We found that compared to controls, IHD patients have approx. 30% less IAP (mean±SEM: 63.7±3.5 vs. 44.9±2.1 U/g stool, respectively; p<0.000001), which indicates that IAP deficiency is associated with IHD, and a high level of IAP is probably protective against IHD in humans. The adjusted generalized linear model (GLM) of regression analysis predicted a strong association of IAP with IHD (p=0.0035). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed an independent inverse relationship between the IAP level and the IHD status (odds ratio, OR=0.993 with 95% CI 0.987-0.998; p<0.01). Conclusions. IAP deficiency is associated with IHD, and a high level of IAP might be protective against IHD.

One hundred and fifty-eight Kadazan, Iban and Bidayuh individuals registered with the Malaysian Marrow Donor Registry were typed for human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A, HLA-B and HLA-DR. Six, seven and eight HLA-A alleles as well as 13, 15 and 16 HLA-B alleles were detected in the Kadazan, Bidayuh and Iban, respectively. The most common HLA-A allele in all three groups was HLA-A*24 with a frequency of 0.456, 0.490 and 0.422 in the Kadazan, Bidayuh and Iban, respectively. The most common HLA-B allele detected in the Kadazan was HLA-B*40 with a frequency of 0.333; for the Bidayuh and the Iban it was HLA-B*15 with a frequency of 0.460 and 0.275, respectively. The HLA-DR allele with the highest frequency in the Kadazan was HLA-DR*1502 with a frequency of 0.500. In the Iban and the Bidayuh, HLA-DRB1*1202 was the most common DR allele with frequencies of 0.235 and 0.310, respectively. The two most common haplotypes for the Kadazan are A*34-B*38-DR*1502 and A*24-B*40-DR*0405, whereas for the Bidayuh they are A*24-B*15-DR*1602 and A*24-B*35-DR*1202 and for the Iban they are A*34-*B15-DR*1502 and A*24-B*15-DR*1202.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommend that all donated blood are to be screened for at least three viral infections [human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV)]. The National Blood Centre, Kuala Lumpur (NBCKL) aims to reduce transfusion transmitted infections (TTI) as it still remains as one of the major risk for blood transfusion. A cross sectional study was conducted at the National Blood Centre, Kuala Lumpur from 1st January 2009 to 31st June 2010. Data from 581,020 donors were analyzed from year 2004 to 2008. All data were retrieved from NBCKL Blood Bank Information System (BBIS). A total of 201 repeat donors were included in the study based on the inclusion criteria but only 132 repeat donors agreed to participate. Information on sociodemographic, risk factors, knowledge of donors and high risk behavior were extracted from standardize questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 14.0. The aim of this study was to determine the predictors of the seropositive infectivity among repeat blood donors at the NBCKL. The results showed Syphilis accounts for the highest and increasing seroconversion rate among other infections from 20. and Syphilis. This study found that the frequency of HCV seropositivity is higher among lapsed donor. Socio demographic factors such as male and working in the private sector predominates in all TTI markers. Majority of the respondents were aware about relation of high risk activities and risk of TTI.

BackgroundFamily history of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a surrogate for an individual's genetic and partly environmental risk of developing RA. It is assessed daily in clinical practice and its magnitude and pattern of distribution may provide information on the RA etiology.ObjectivesWe investigated the association between family history of RA and the risk of anti-citrullinated peptide antibody (ACPA)-positive and ACPA-negative RA in the Malaysian population.MethodsData from the Malaysian Epidemiological Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis (MyEIRA) population-based case-control study involving 1,055 early RA cases and 1,055 age, sex and residential area-matched controls were analyzed. Information from interview-reported family history of RA or rheumatic stiff back among first degree relatives was used to estimate the risk of developing ACPA-positive and ACPA negative RA. The odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated.ResultsIn this study, 64% of the RA patients were ACPA-positive and 40% of the overall RA carried HLA-DRB1 shared epitope (SE) alleles. Family history of RA was significantly associated with an increased risk of developing RA in the Malaysian population (RA versus controls, 17.0% vs. 7.7%, OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.8–3.2, p<0.0001). The association between positive family history and risk of RA was uniformly observed for the ACPA-positive RA (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.8–3.3, p<0.0001) and ACPA-negative RA (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.6–3.2, p<0.0001) subsets, respectively. A dramatically increased risk for ACPA-positive RA was seen in individuals who both were having positive family history of RA and carried HLA-DRB1 SE alleles (OR 14.7, 95% CI 7.7–27.8). We also observed a lesser risk magnitude in the ACPA-negative RA patients (OR 5.7, 95% CI 2.7–11.9).ConclusionsOur data demonstrate that family history of RA remains an important clinical risk factor for RA. In addition, positive family history of RA was associated with an increased risk of developing both the ACPA-positive and ACPA-negative RA in the Malaysian population, suggesting that the two RA subsets are similar in genetic risk factors that overlap with these diseases.References Frisell T, Saevarsdottir S, Askling J. Family history of rheumatoid arthritis: an old concept with new developments. Nat Rev Rheumatol. 2016 Jun;12(6):335–43.Frisell T, Hellgren K, Alfredsson L, Raychaudhuri S, Klareskog L, Askling J. Familial aggregation of arthritis-related diseases in seropositive and seronegative rheumatoid arthritis: a register-based case-control study in Sweden. Ann Rheum Dis. 2016 Jan;75(1):183–9. Disclosure of InterestNone declared