Prevalence of human T-cell lymphotropic virus infections in Germany.

The extent of human T-cell lymphotropic retrovirus HTLV-I and HTLV-II infections in the general population in central Europe has not been investigated fully. Two hundred forty-eight thousand blood donors from southern Germany were examined serologically for antibodies to the human lymphotropic retroviruses HTLV-I and HTLV-II: 0.021% were confirmed positive and 0.

[Incidence of the detection of erythrocyte antibodies in relation to screening test cells].

A variety of antibody screening tests are available to detect immunization in patients' sera. However, antibodies can be observed only if corresponding antigens are present on test cells used by an antibody screen. By comparing available test cell kits of different manufacturers we revealed various specificities of antigens present or absent on these cells.

[Combination of a simple hollow fiber system with leukocyte filter for production of leukocyte depleted erythrocyte concentrates and plasma].

Leukocyte-depleted red cell concentrate (RCC) and plasma were separated by a hollow fiber filter system combined with a leukocyte filter without any additional devices. The RCC with 100 ml additive solution had a weight of 329 g; hematocrit was 0.55, free hemoglobin 16 mg/dl; leukocytes were (0.

[HTLV-I antibody screening of blood donors].

Routine screening of 344,266 blood donations of approximately 200,000 donors for anti-HTLV-I was done by enzyme immuno assay (EIA). Repeatedly reactive samples were confirmed by Western Blot (WB) and radio immuno precipitation assay (RIPA). The prevalence of anti-HTLV-I in Bavarian blood donors is 0.