Severe haemolytic disease of the newborn due to anti-Js(b).

A case of anti-Js(b) in pregnancy was associated with unexpectedly severe haemolytic disease of the newborn, requiring urgent exchange transfusion. Clinical signs of fetal distress were evident at 35 weeks of gestation in a sixth pregnancy. A Js(b+) baby from a previous pregnancy had been unaffected.

Haemolytic disease of the newborn due to anti-Ce.

A baby was readmitted to the hospital 3 days after delivery when she developed jaundice. At admission, the direct antiglobulin test was also found to be positive. The baby required emergency exchange transfusion.

HLA-A, -B and -DR antigen frequencies of the London Cord Blood Bank units differ from those found in established bone marrow donor registries.

Patients requiring allogeneic stem cell transplantation who do not have an HLA-matched related donor can sometimes obtain an unrelated donor by searching volunteer registries. The majority of donors in the registries are Caucasoid, which results in a lower probability of a non-Caucasoid patient finding a suitable donor. Cord blood is increasingly used as a source of haematopoietic stem cells for allogeneic bone marrow reconstitution and so far the London Cord Blood Bank has banked almost 3000 cord blood units.

Comparison of in vivo red cell survival of donations collected by Haemonetics MCS versus conventional collection.

The Haemonetics Multicomponents System (MCS) cell separator allows concurrent donation of red cells in addition to platelets and/or plasma, thus increasing the versatility of apheresis donations. In vivo survival of autologous red cells obtained by MCS was compared with red cells collected conventionally. In this cross-over controlled study, five male volunteers donated one unit of red cells by MCS and one unit of whole blood by the conventional manual method, 3 months apart.