The American Rare Donor Program

Relative IgA‐deficient recipients have an increased risk of severe allergic transfusion reactions

“…Washing cellular blood products removes almost all of the plasma allergens, and it is currently a common method of preventing allergic reactions. Washing protocols for red blood cell and platelets vary by institution, but they typically aim to reduce the IgA concentration to <0·05 mg/dl . Tóth et al .…”

Practical approaches and costs for provisioning safe transfusions during anti‐CD38 therapy

“…Antibodies to minor blood group antigens may not result in a significantly increased strength of reactivity over anti‐CD38 interference with routine antibody screens, and an incompatible crossmatch may be attributed to anti‐CD38 . Second, the probability of finding an extended antigen‐matched donor unit for multiple antigens could be low (<1%) and, therefore, qualify as an American Rare Donor Program request . To increase the likelihood of finding a RBC unit in such a case, antigen matching could be adjusted based on immunogenicity, antigen prevalence, and available units in the donor inventory.…”

Culturing red blood cells from stem cells: a solution to present and future challenges of transfusion medicine?

“…In total, RBCC are sold for 200-5000 € depending on the country and the unit scarcity. However, the overall costs of transfusion for public health systems also depend on occurrence of transfusion-related acute lung injury, haemolytic reactions, infections, iron overload and/or alloimmunization, which will result in even higher expenses, and finally, repeated hospitalization in specialized care units and social security allocations for the disabled [6][7][8]. In the UK, for example, Varney et al [8] estimated that the global cost of transfusion is 898 M £/year, with 624 M£/year for RBCC transfusion alone.…”