21 June 2026 (Sunday) - Still Waiting

Here’s food for thought – During my first week in this job I spend a day in each of the various laboratories. One of my most vivid memories was from Friday 18 September 1981 when the chief in the microbiology laboratory went off on a major rant about how the science of blood transfusion was dead. Apparently there were dogs in Japan being kept alive on cell-free haemoglobin-based oxygen carriers, and this chap was adamant that they would be used in humans in only a few short months, and the traditional hospital blood bank would be gone.

There was a *lot* of inter-departmental animosity (outright hatred) at the now-demolished Royal East Sussex Hospital, and the subject of artificial blood was never far from anyone’s lips back then.

Forty-five years later and the stuff still hasn’t delivered…

 

20 June 2026 (Saturday) - End of an Era?

I’ve not written anything here for two weeks – I’ve been on holiday. And whilst I wasn’t looking one of my major sources of CPD has gone belly-up.

Every so often there would be a work-related post appearing on the Lablogatory blog which I could sometimes use here on my personal continuing professional development. Naively I always thought the site was created by volunteers. It turns out that those producing material for the site were being paid to do so, and the money has dried up. My CPD blog is open to all, and a surprising amount of people seem to refer to it. Am I wrong in providing this for free? Personally I don’t think so.

2 June 2026 (Tuesday) - Fritsma Factor Newsletter

 The nice people at the Fritsma Factor sent their update today. This time there’s quite a bit of stuff which went over my head. Perhaps it shouldn’t… which is why I do CPD…

2 June 2026 (Tuesday) - BTLP-TACT Exercise

I’m always getting prompts to do more BTLP-TACT exercises, I’ve walked the dogs, and it is raining outside anyway…
 
I was given two cases:
 

33586 – a thirty-year-old woman with appendicitis needing group and save.

She grouped as O Rh(D) Positive with a negative antibody screen.

 

15253 – an eight-one-year-old woman needing four units of blood for a pancreatectomy.

She grouped as B Rh(D) Positive with an antibody screen positive in cells 2 & 3.

I performed antibody panels.

The enzyme and IAT panels were positive in cells 1, 3, 4, 6 & 7 corresponding with anti Jk(a) but not excluding anti-Cw.

I scared up four units of various compatible ABO and RH groups that were Jk(a) Negative

 
I got it wrong…
Anti-Cw *could* have been excluded from the screening panel. Dur !!! 
But if that was the only hiccup I’m content. Better to err on the side of caution, eh?

1 June 2026 (Monday) - VEXAS Syndrome

I saw a diagnosis today: VEXAS syndrome. A new one on me – it is an adult-onset, severe autoinflammatory and blood disorder caused by a random, acquired mutation in the UBA1 gene. It primarily affects men over fifty. The name is an acronym outlining its core characteristics:

 

·  Vacuoles in bone marrow cells

·  E1 enzyme malfunction

·  X-linked genetic origin

·  Autoinflammation (immune system attacking healthy tissue)

·  Somatic mutation (not inherited)

 

Here’s a link about it.