Red blood cell transfusion in patients with anti-Yt.

Background: Yt is a high frequency red blood cell (RBC) antigen, present in 99.7% of studied populations. It is extremely immunogenic, and when anti-Yt is present, provision of Yt(a-) blood is often challenging.

Role of bone marrow biopsy for fever of unknown origin in the contemporary Australian context.

Background: Bone marrow biopsy (BMB) is an accepted investigation in fever of unknown origin (FUO) to uncover haematological malignancies, such as lymphoma, and sometimes infections. With the advance in imaging modalities, such as 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) to identify the focus of lymphoma, BMB may not contribute to the diagnosis when there are no other clinical features to suggest an underlying haematological disease.

Aim: To investigate the utility of BMB in determining the cause of FUO, when there are no other indications for BMB.

Revisiting acquired aplastic anaemia: current concepts in diagnosis and management.

Acquired aplastic anaemia is a rare, serious, immunologically mediated bone marrow failure syndrome, characterised by marrow hypoplasia of varying severity and significant pancytopenia. Careful attention and investigation, including molecular testing, is required to confirm the diagnosis and exclude other mimicking conditions, such as inherited bone marrow failure syndromes. In a proportion of patients, the disease evolves to myelodysplasia or acute myeloid leukaemia and in some there is an association with paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria.

Prevalence and causes of preoperative anaemia in elective major surgery patients.

Background: Preoperative anaemia is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in surgical patients. Recent national patient blood management guideline recommended screening surgical patients for anaemia, particularly iron deficiency anaemia, without reference to the prevalence of anaemia or iron deficiency anaemia in this patient population.

Aims: To establish the prevalence and cause of preoperative anaemia in elective major surgery patients.

Improving patient blood management in obstetrics: snapshots of a practice improvement partnership.

Iron deficiency and anaemia are common in pregnancy. Audit data from our tertiary obstetrics unit demonstrated 22% of maternity patients experiencing a postpartum haemorrhage received a transfusion; a third of whom were anaemic on admission intrapartum. Australian Patient Blood Management (PBM) Module 5 Obstetrics guidelines focuses on maximising red cell mass at the time of delivery and reducing the reliance on transfusion as a salvage therapy to treat blood loss.

Suspected acute hemolytic transfusion reaction mediated by anti-Di(a).

Anti-Di(a) can mediate hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn, but it is unclear if it can cause hemolytic transfusion reactions (HTRs). To date, there has only been one report of a possible immediate HTR attributed to anti-Di(a). Our case report details an immediate HTR due to anti-Di(a) in a patient with pre-existing liver failure.

Primary progressive aphasia: a case report.

Primary progressive aphasia is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterised by deterioration in language function while other higher centre functions are relatively preserved initially. The diagnosis is made based on clinical presentation, linguistic testing and imaging, both functional and structural. Survival is similar to other dementias and the main form of intervention is speech therapy.