Tissue donation after death in the accident and emergency department: an opportunity wasted?

Objective: To investigate whether the accident and emergency department (A&E) is a potential source of tissues for donation, from non-heart beating donors (NHBDs).

Methods: A telephone survey of 30 A&E departments was conducted to determine current tissue harvesting practices from NHBDs. The potential number of tissue donors in our own medium sized district general hospital A&E department was estimated.

A study of the interrelationship between circulating IgG subclass anti-IgE autoantibodies, IgE and soluble CD23 in asthma.

In this paper we hypothesise that circulating autoanti-IgE antibodies, which are found in allergic asthma patients, could potentially enhance IgE synthesis by blocking its binding to CD23 on B lymphocytes, thereby potentiating the release of soluble fragments of CD23 which have B cell growth-promoting activity. We have investigated this possibility indirectly by measuring soluble (s) CD23 and IgG subclass anti-IgE antibody levels in asthmatic patients' sera, to find out if the two parameters are related. However, we were unable to show any significant correlations between serum IgG subclass anti-IgE activities and sCD23 levels.