Evaluation of platelet function during extended storage in additive solution, prepared in a new container that allows manual buffy-coat platelet pooling and leucoreduction in the same system.

Background: A novel and practical storage container designed for manual buffy-coat pooling and leucodepletion was evaluated to assess its filtration performance and to analyse the quality of stored leucoreduced buffy-coat-derived platelet pools.

Materials And Methods: To analyse the grifols leucored transfer PL system, blood was collected from random donors into standard triple bag systems, and fractionated using standard procedures to obtain buffy-coats. Ten leucodepleted platelet pools were prepared each from five units of buffy-coats in additive solution.

Prevalence of diabetes in Murcia (Spain): a Mediterranean area characterised by obesity.

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to describe the prevalence of total, known and unknown diabetes mellitus and impaired fasting glucose (IFG) in the population of Murcia (SE Spain), a Mediterranean area with a high prevalence of obesity. Therefore, 2562 subjects (>or=20 years) were selected by stratified random sampling and a survey was carried out by telephone, together with a physical examination and biochemical determinations. The ADA-1997 diagnostic criteria were used.

Trends in human immunodeficiency virus infection among drug users in a detoxification unit.

In a cross-sectional study of 1111 injection drug users (IDUs) admitted to a hospital detoxification unit between 1987 and 2001, characteristics of substance abuse and blood samples were obtained at study entry. The median age at admission was 27 years, the median age at first injection of drugs was 19 years, and the median duration of injection drug use was 84 months. Overall prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection was 60% (58% in men, 66% in women; P=.