Antibody screening and identification in donors and general patients at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Western India.

Background And Objectives: The aim of the blood transfusion service should be to provide effective blood and blood components, which are as safe as possible and adequate to meet patient's need. To achieve safe blood transfusion practice, many blood transfusion center in India follow routine type and screen protocol for all patient's and donor's blood samples to detect unexpected alloantibodies. The present study is aimed at assessing the frequency and type of unexpected red cell alloantibodies in general patient population and donors at a tertiary care teaching hospital in western India.

Therapeutic plasma exchange in pediatric patients of Guillain-Barre syndrome: Experience from a Tertiary Care Centre.

Background And Objective: Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE) is performed effectively and safely in adult patients, but the use of TPE is limited in paediatric patients due to lack of universally accepted indications and technical challenges like establishment of adequate vascular access, low blood volume, increased incidence of adverse events during procedure and poor co-operation of patients during procedure. We present our experience of TPE in paediatric patients to assess the effectiveness and safety of TPE in paediatric patients.

Materials And Methods: A total 122 TPE procedures were performed in 40 paediatric patients between 3 to 15 years of age group with Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS).

Partial phenotyping in voluntary blood donors of Gujarat State.

Introduction: Partial phenotyping of voluntary blood donors has vital role in transfusion practice, population genetic study and in resolving legal issues. The Rh blood group is one of the most complex and highly immunogenic blood group known in humans. The Kell system, discovered in 1946, is the third most potent system at triggering hemolytic transfusion reactions and consists of 25 highly immunogenic antigens.

Performance indicators: A tool for continuous quality improvement.

Background: Performance monitoring is an important tool which can be used for setting priorities for process improvement. At our centre, we have been monitoring every step in the processes, right from inventory of consumables (both critical and routine) to number of donors reactive for TTI. We conducted a study to measure the impact of monitoring Performance Indicators and how it could be used as a tool for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI).

Guillain - Barre syndrome in a patient with acute myocardial infarction with ventricular septal defect repair treated with plasma exchange.

Guillain - Barre syndrome (GBS) is an acute, frequently severe progressive illness of peripheral nervous system that is autoimmune in nature. GBS after myocardial infarction (MI) with ventricular septal defect (VSD) is uncommon with high mortality rate if not treated promptly.[1] We report a successful outcome of GBS post MI with VSD in a 60-year-old male patient who was on a ventilator treated successfully with therapeutic plasma exchange.

Hepatitis E seroprevalence among blood donors: A pilot study from Western India.

Background: Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is emerging as a potential threat to blood safety after several cases of transmission by transfusion or transplantation have been described. Currently, blood donors in India are not screened for HEV. The studies conducted on HEV in recent times in India have focused on epidemiology and future perspectives, but there is no published study on blood donors.

Autoimmune hemolytic anemia in a patient with Malaria.

Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia (AIHA), a very infrequent condition which represents a group of disorders in which presence of autoantibodies directed against self-antigens leads to shortened red cell survival. Till date, a very few cases of AIHA in Malaria patients are reported worldwide but still AIHA should be considered a relatively rare cause of anemia in malaria. A 20 year male presented with intermittent fever since seven days and yellowish discoloration of urine and sclera since 5 days.