Differences in postoperative infection rates between allogeneic and autologous recipients are still observable, although universal WBC filtration has been introduced into clinical practice.
, P = 0.005), and median survival time after liver injury was 55 min in the fibrinogen, 26 min in the platelet (P = 0.035) and 19 min in the saline group (P = < 0.0001). Conclusions: These data show for the first time that impaired clot formation during thrombocytopenia improves with administration of fibrinogen concentrate, which results in a slowdown of blood loss and prolonged survival.
Serum levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-S) have been reported to correlate with tumor stage and prognosis in various human malignancies. The source of soluble VEGF in peripheral blood remains obscure. We therefore measured the concentration of immunoreactive VEGF in 241 serum samples and 61 plasma samples (VEGF-P) from 20 subjects undergoing myeloablative chemotherapy and from 3 normal platelet donors. A significant correlation between the peripheral blood platelet count (PC) and VEGF-S (r = 0.86) but not VEGF-P was found. VEGF-S levels were 58.43 ± 42.50 pg/ml (mean ± SD) in patients with a PC < 50 × 109/l, 203.29 ± 176.56 pg/ml for a PC of 50–150 × 109/l, and 457.42 ± 475.41 pg/ml for a PC > 150 × 109/l. Interestingly, VEGF-P levels were substantially lower than the corresponding VEGF-S values, namely below the detection limit in most cases. Supernatants from platelet-rich plasma contained no VEGF, but after in vitro lysis of the platelets very high VEGF levels were found. The VEGF content per 109 platelets was calculated at 2.51 ± 2.39 pg and was dependent on the mean platelet volume. In summary, VEGF release from platelets during blood clotting was found to be the main source of VEGF in serum samples. Cancer patients in clinical remission have negligible amounts of soluble VEGF in peripheral blood, and myeloablative chemotherapy causes a significant drop in VEGF-S levels corresponding to the decrease in PC. Thus, studies addressing the diagnostic and prognostic value of VEGF-S in cancer patients must be interpreted with caution. Our data provide the basis for predicting VEGF-S in relation to PC in vivo, and for reevaluating former studies of VEGF-S in patients with malignant or nonmalignant disease.
Buffy coat-depleted allogeneic blood transfusion increases the incidence of postoperative infection in patients undergoing uncontaminated orthopedic surgery.
Serological typing for the classical ABO blood groups is routinely performed using anti-A and anti-B antisera of polyclonal or monoclonal origin, which are able to distinguish four phenotypes (A, B, AB, and O). Modern molecular biology methods offer the possibility of direct ABO genotyping without the need for family investigations. Typing can be done with small amounts of DNA and without detection of blood group molecules on the surface of red blood cells. We developed a system of eight polymerase chain reactions (PCR) to detect specific nucleotide sequence differences between the ABO alleles O1, O2, A1, A2, and B. PCR amplification using sequence-specific primers and detection of amplification products by agarose gel electrophoresis is one of the fastest genotyping methods and is easy to handle. With our method we tested the A1,2BO1,2 genotypes of 300 randomly chosen persons out of a pool of platelet donors and found the results to be consistent with ABO glycosyltransferase phenotypes. We also identified a presumably new ABO allele, which may be the result of a crossing-over event between alleles O1 and A2.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.