10 June 2020 (Wednesday) - Stating the Obvious?

My first reaction was to just delete the email which told me about this article. But sometimes the unwritten rules really do need to be written…

“Many years ago a woman purchased a cup of coffee in a restaurant drive-through. Not having a cup holder available in her car, she placed the cup between her legs to hold the coffee while she reached for money to pay for it. She burned her legs, sued the restaurant, and actually won her court case…”

8 June 2020 (Monday) - Transfusion Evidence Alert

The nice people at the Transfusion Evidence Alert sent their update today. It is rather weighted in favour of articles about COVID-19… but the D-dimer and convalescent plasma articles were rather interesting…

HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLE

Image-proven thromboembolism in patients with severe COVID-19 in a tertiary critical care unit in the United Kingdom
Desborough, M. J. R., et al. Thrombosis research 2020

TOP ARTICLES Association between D-Dimer levels and mortality in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a systematic review and pooled analysis Sakka Mehdi.,  JMV-Journal de Médecine Vasculaire 2020 Thrombocytopenia is associated with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections: A meta-analysis Lippi, G., et al.  Clinica Chimica Acta 2020 Systematic assessment of venous thromboembolism in COVID-19 patients receiving thromboprophylaxis: incidence and role of D-dimer as predictive factors Artifoni, M ., et al. Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis 2020 Blood supply and transfusion support in southern Italy: findings during the first four weeks of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic Grandone, E., et al. Blood Transfusion 2020 Scientific and Standardization Committee Communication: Clinical Guidance on the Diagnosis, Prevention and Treatment of Venous Thromboembolism in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 Spyropoulos, A. C., et al. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis 2020 Routine Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis May Be Inadequate in the Hypercoagulable State of Severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 Maatman, T. K., et al. Critical Care Medicine 2020 Use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma in low- and middle-income countries: a call for ethical principles and the assurance of quality and safety Epstein, J., et al. Vox Sanguinis 2020 Coagulopathy of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Iba, T., et al. Critical Care Medicine 2020 Pathogen reduction of SARS-CoV-2 virus in plasma and whole blood using riboflavin and UV light Ragan, I., et al. Plos One 2020

3 June 2020 (Wednesday) - IBMS Newsletter

The IBMS sent their newsletter today. One article immediately caught my attention – something which prevents mosquitos from contracting malaria.

I see this as a step in the right direction for the IBMS…

3 June 2020 (Wednesday) - Discrimination - Me?

The nice people at Oncology Central sent me an invite to a webinar today. I immediately dismissed it out of hand… one of the speakers tooked to be far too young, and the two male speakers weren’t wearing a tie.

This is something I need to address… these people are clearly far brighter than I am. I could learn a lot form them. I need to address this discriminatory attitude I seem to have developed…

2 June 2020 (Tuesday) - Fritsma Factor

The Fritsma Factor newsletter arrived in my inbox today. You can read it by clicking here. It is rather concentrating on COVID-19, but isn’t everything right now?

2 June 2020 (Tuesday) - Transfusion Evidence Update

The nice people at the Transfusion Evidence Alert sent their update today. It is rather weighted in favour of articles about COVID-19…

HIGHLIGHTED ARTICLE Efficacy and safety of convalescent plasma for severe COVID-19 based on evidence in other severe respiratory viral infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis Devasenapathy N., et al. CMAJ 2020

TOP ARTICLES Blood supply strategies facing a reference blood center in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic Maria de Lourdes Barjas-Castro.,  ISBT Science Series 2020 SARS in Canada: Lessons Learned for the Blood Operator Devine Dana V., et al.  Transfusion Medicine 2020 Enhanced platelet inhibition treatment improves hypoxemia in patients with severe Covid-19 and hypercoagulability. A case control, proof of concept study Viecca Maurizio ., et al. Pharmacological Research 2020 Promoting platelets is a therapeutic option to combat severe viral infection of the lung Qiu Jiahuang., et al. Blood Advances 2020 Temporal Changes in Immune Blood Cell Parameters in COVID-19 Infection and Recovery from Severe Infection Yip, C. Y., et al. British Journal of Haematology 2020 Fibrinolysis Shutdown Correlates to Thromboembolic Events in Severe COVID-19 Infection Wright, F. L., et al. Journal of the American College of Surgeons 2020 Anti-Coagulant and Anti-Platelet Therapy in the COVID-19 Patient: A Best Practices Quality Initiative Across a Large Health System Watson, R. A., et al. Hospital Practice 2020 Thromboembolism and anticoagulant therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic: interim clinical guidance from the anticoagulation forum Barnes, G. D., et al. Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis 2020 How did we rapidly implement a convalescent plasma program? Budhai, A., et al. Transfusion 2020

1 June 2020 (Monday) - Training Others

Here’s something from the Lablogatory people – lab staff are important in the education of everyone – especially the patients…

Ten years ago I would be all up for that… nowadays part of me misses the training, but mostly I just want a quiet life. Is this wrong of me, or am I just getting old.