Transfusion safety: Is there a difference between reported reactions in low-to-middle income and high-income countries?

Background And Objectives: Transfusion safety may be becoming dependent on the financial resources made available for transfusion structures and may vary between high-income countries (HIC) and low-to-middle-income countries (LMIC). To assess whether there is a difference in the reported TR between these two groups of countries, we examined TR reported in Tunis the capital of Tunisia, a LMIC, and compared their frequency with reported TR in HIC.

Materials And Methods: Data of TR were collected from transfusion incident report (TIR) forms declared by healthcare facilities in Tunis between 2015 and 2019.

Mouse models of Japanese encephalitis virus infection: A systematic review and meta-analysis using a meta-regression approach.

Background: Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus (JEV) remains a leading cause of neurological infection across Asia. The high lethality of disease and absence of effective therapies mean that standardised animal models will be crucial in developing therapeutics. However, published mouse models are heterogeneous.

Switching to nanonutrients for sustaining agroecosystems and environment: the challenges and benefits in moving up from ionic to particle feeding.

The worldwide agricultural enterprise is facing immense pressure to intensify to feed the world's increasing population while the resources are dwindling. Fertilizers which are deemed as indispensable inputs for food, fodder, and fuel production now also represent the dark side of the intensive food production system. With most crop production systems focused on increasing the quantity of produce, indiscriminate use of fertilizers has created havoc for the environment and damaged the fiber of the biogeosphere.

Physical trauma and injury: A multi-center study comparing local residents and refugees in Lebanon.

Background: Refugees are susceptible to various types of injury mechanisms associated with their dire living conditions and settlements. This study aims to compare and characterize the emergency department admissions due to physical trauma and injuries among local residents and refugees in greater Beirut.

Methods: This epidemiological study analyzes injury incidence and characteristics of patients presenting to Emergency Departments of 5 sentinel hospitals between 2017 and 2019.

Surgical management of eumycetoma: experience from Gezira Mycetoma Center, Sudan.

Background: In this study, we share our experience of different operative techniques undertaken on 584 eumycetoma patients in the Gezira Mycetoma Center.

Methods: This is a retrospective, descriptive, hospital-based study, conducted to review the surgical treatment of eumycetoma patients. We included all patients diagnosed with eumycetoma who underwent a surgical operation in the center during January 2013-December 2016.

Filgrastim following HLA-Identical Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation: Long-Term Outcomes of a Randomized Trial.

Human recombinant granulocyte colony stimulating factor reduces the duration of neutropenia following HLA-identical allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. However, its use remains controversial due to the risk of increasing the incidence of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and slower platelet recovery. To clarify these risks, we conducted a prospective randomized placebo-controlled trial of filgrastim 5 µg/kg/day i.

Plasmodium falciparum infection transmitted by transfusion: A cause of hemophagocytic syndrome after bone marrow tranplantation in a non-endemic country.

A 27-year-old man with severe aplastic anemia underwent bone marrow transplantation from his HLA identical brother in July 2016. Conditioning included ATGAM 30 mg/kg for 3 days and Cyclophosphamide 50 mg/kg for 4 days. The patient received several platelet and red blood cell transfusions before and after the conditioning.

Occurrence and Impact of Time Delay to Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Patients With ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction.

Background: The aim of the study was to evaluate the occurrence, duration and impact of time delays to primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).

Methods: A total of 357 consecutive STEMI patients enrolled in the prospective Special Program University Medicine ACS (SPUM-ACS) cohort were included. In order to identify the causes behind a possible treatment delay, we constructed four different time points which included: 1) symptom onset to hospital arrival, 2) hospital arrival to arrival in the catheterization laboratory, 3) hospital arrival to first balloon inflation, and 4) time from arrival in the catheterization laboratory to first balloon inflation in addition to total ischemic time.

[Hemovigilance: State 2007-2013 Tunis].

Introduction: Despite its lifesaving role, blood transfusion still has risks associated with it. Hemovigilance is a set of surveillance procedures of the transfusion chain intended to promote safe and effective use of blood components. This work aims to present a descriptive analysis of adverse reactions, which were notified over a period of 5 years (incidence and etiology); to identify malfunctions and to propose corrections.

Renal anomalies in patients with turner syndrome: Is scintigraphy superior to ultrasound?

Renal anomalies are present in up to 30% of patients with Turner syndrome (TS). Renal ultrasound (U/S) detects anatomical renal anomalies only while renal scintigraphy detects anomalies, detects early renal malfunction, and estimates glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Thus, we aimed to assess frequency of renal abnormalities detected by scintigraphy in comparison to renal U/S in TS patients.

Successful treatment of Fusarium solani ecthyma gangrenosum in a patient affected by leukocyte adhesion deficiency type 1 with granulocytes transfusions.

Background: Ecthyma gangrenosum (EG) manifests as a skin lesion affecting patients suffering extreme neutropenia and is commonly associated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa in immunocompromised patients. Leukocyte adhesion deficiency I (LAD I) which count among primary immunodeficiency syndromes of the innate immunity, is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized in its severe phenotype by a complete defect in CD18 expression on neutrophils, delayed cord separation, chronic skin ulcers mainly due to recurrent bacterial and fungal infections, leucocytosis with high numbers of circulating neutrophils and an accumulation of abnormally low number of neutrophils at sites of infection.

Case Presentation: We report at our knowledge the first case of a child affected by LAD-1, who experienced during her disease course a multi-bacterial and fungal EG lesion caused by fusarium solani.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for acquired aplastic anemia using cyclophosphamide and antithymocyte globulin: a single center experience.

Between February 1998 and October 2007, 97 (69 male, 28 female) patients with acquired aplastic anemia and a median age of 18 years (range, 2-39) received related allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Ninety-five patients received bone marrow grafts and two patients G-CSF primed peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. The donors were genotypically HLA-identical siblings in 94 cases, HLA-matched parents in 2 cases and a syngeneic twin in 1 case.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in Tunisia.

In 1998, the Tunisian team of the 'Centre National de Greffe de Moelle Osseuse' initiated allogeneic hematopoietic SCT (AHSCT) in Tunisia. As of June 2007, information was collected about 299 patients with a first AHSCT and 12 additional retransplants. The median age was 19 years (range 2-49 years).

[A cord blood bank in Tunisia: usefulness and feasibility].

Background: The cord blood is a souce of hematopoietic stem cells. This have encouraged the creation of many cord blood banks around the world.

The Aim: By this prospective study during 2 years, we tried to show the advantages of such sources of progenitors ,and to evaluate our techniques of collection, freezing, biological and microbiological survey.

Prospective randomised comparison of the COBE spectra version 6 and haemonetics MCS(+) cell separators for hematopoietic progenitor cells leucapheresis in patients with multiple myeloma.

A randomised crossover trial of two separators was undertaken to compare the mononuclear cell, CD34(+) cell and CFU-GM yield, in patients (<61 years) with previously untreated symptomatic multiple myeloma. After first-line therapy, all patients received mobilising chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide 4 g/m(2)) and daily G-CSF. The first leucapheresis was performed on the first day the peripheral blood absolute CD34(+) cell count was > 20 cells/microl.

Prevalence of C282Y and H63D mutations in the haemochromatosis (HFE) gene in Tunisian population.

The studies of the HFE mutations: H63D and C282Y in North African populations have revealed the extreme rarity or even the absence of the C282Y mutation. We have examined 1140 chromosomes (570 Tunisian people) for the presence of the two HFE mutations by PCR-RFLP analysis. We have found that the allele frequencies are, respectively, 15.

HLA polymorphism in type 1 diabetes Tunisians.

Several studies of the association between HLA and type 1 diabetes have been carried out revealing differences between ethnic groups. Our study, as part of the studies that should be performed about this association in the rest of the word, aims at elucidating the HLA DRB1, DQB1 polymorphism in Tunisian type 1 diabetes. This study includes 43 unrelated type 1 diabetes patients, and their mean age at onset is less than 15 years.

Skew deviation and inferior oblique palsy.

Purpose: To describe ocular motility and neuro-ophthalmologic findings in six patients with an ocular tilt reaction (OTR) that mimicked an inferior oblique palsy (IOP).

Design: Observational Case Series.

Methods: Series of six patients presenting to tertiary care pediatric or neuro-ophthalmologist.

[Autologous transfusion program].

The term autologous transfusion describes transfusion of any blood component that was donated by intended recipient. A recipient who serves as his or her own donor receives the safest possible transfusion in that the risks of transfusion-transmitted infection and alloimmunization are eliminated. A preoperative autologous transfusion program provides many benefits to the donor-patient the blood donor center and the hospital transfusion service; requires a good communication between the transfusion physician and the collecting facility and needs a rigorous technical organization of the blood bank to ovoid the human errors of testing and labeling.