The approach taken to reducing the risk of transfusion related acute lung injury in Canada.

Transfusion related acute lung injury (TRALI) has become a major reported cause of severe transfusion reactions and mortality. Over the past four years significant changes have been taken in Canada in order both to improve the recognition of the risk and to decrease its incidence. An international meeting was held in April of 2004 entitled "Towards an Understanding of TRALI".

Universal prestorage leukoreduction in Canada decreases platelet alloimmunization and refractoriness.

Randomized controlled trials have shown a reduction in platelet alloimmunization and refractoriness in patients with acute leukemia (AL) with the use of poststorage leukoreduction of blood products. Universal prestorage leukoreduction (ULR) of red cell and platelet products has been performed in Canada since August 1999. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 13 902 platelet transfusions in 617 patients undergoing chemotherapy (CT) for AL or stem cell transplantation (SCT) before (n = 315) and after (n = 302) the introduction of ULR.

Effect of the factor V Leiden mutation on the clinical expression of severe hemophilia A.

To determine whether the factor V Leiden mutation is associated with decreased bleeding in individuals with severe hemophilia A, factor concentrate utilization, maximum annual number of bleeding episodes, and the prevalence of hemophilic arthropathy between carriers and non-carriers of the factor V Leiden mutation were compared. Heterozygosity for the factor V Leiden mutation was found in 6 of 137 subjects (4.4%).