Management and clinical outcomes for patients with gastrointestinal bleeding who decline transfusion.

Background: The national blood shortage and growing patient population who decline blood transfusions have created the need for bloodless medicine initiatives. This case series describes the management of gastrointestinal bleed patients who declined allogeneic blood transfusion. Understanding the effectiveness of bloodless techniques may improve treatment for future patients while avoiding the risks and cost associated with transfusion.

Black-box and surrogate optimization for tuning spiking neural models of striatum plasticity.

The basal ganglia (BG) is a brain structure that has long been proposed to play an essential role in action selection, and theoretical models of spiking neurons have tried to explain how the BG solves this problem. A recently proposed functional and biologically inspired network model of the striatum (an important nucleus of the BG) is based on spike-timing-dependent eligibility (STDE) and captured important experimental features of this nucleus. The model can recognize complex input patterns and consistently choose rewarded actions to respond to such sensory inputs.

Methods of Bloodless Care, Clinical Outcomes, and Costs for Adult Patients Who Decline Allogeneic Transfusions.

Background: Providing bloodless medical care for patients who wish to avoid allogeneic transfusion can be challenging; however, previous studies have demonstrated favorable outcomes when appropriate methods are used. Here, we report one of the largest series of patients receiving bloodless care, along with the methods used to provide such care, and the resulting outcomes.

Methods: In a retrospective cohort study, 1111 adult inpatients (age ≥18 years) at a single institution who declined allogeneic transfusion for religious or personal reasons between June 2012 and June 2016 were included, and the patient blood management methods are described.

On the Use of a Multimodal Optimizer for Fitting Neuron Models. Application to the Cerebellar Granule Cell.

This article extends a recent methodological workflow for creating realistic and computationally efficient neuron models whilst capturing essential aspects of single-neuron dynamics. We overcome the intrinsic limitations of the extant optimization methods by proposing an alternative optimization component based on multimodal algorithms. This approach can natively explore a diverse population of neuron model configurations.

Assessing predictors of futility in patients receiving massive transfusions.

Background: Massive transfusions are associated with a high mortality rate, but there is little evidence indicating when such efforts are futile. The purpose of this study was to identify clinical variables that could be used as futility indicators in massively transfused patients.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 138 adult surgical patients at our institution receiving a massive transfusion (2016-2019).

Impact of body weight on hemoglobin increments in adult red blood cell transfusion.

Background: Though weight is a major consideration when transfusing blood in pediatric patients, it is generally not considered when dosing transfusions in adults. We hypothesized that the change in hemoglobin (Hb) concentration is inversely proportional to body weight when transfusing red blood cells (RBC) in adults.

Methods: A total of 13,620 adult surgical patients at our institution were assessed in this retrospective cohort study (2009-2016).

Balancing the Blood Component Transfusion Ratio for High- and Ultra High-Dose Cell Salvage Cases.

Objective: To assess the ratio of non-red blood cell to red blood cell components required to avoid coagulopathy when transfusing large amounts of salvaged blood using laboratory test-guided therapy.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Single-center, academic hospital.