1 November 2024 (Friday) - Still Resentful...

This appeared on my Facebook feed today posted from the IBMS’s official Facebook account. A harmless joke… maybe.

 

Howe times have changed. Twelve years ago whilst on a night shift I posted a selfie saying I was tired. It wasn’t possible to see any of the background in that selfie, but I still got a formal disciplinary warning for bringing the profession into disrepute.

I was told at the time that any mention of work whatsoever on Facebook was immediate grounds for formal disciplinary action.

The manager at the time would have laid an egg over what our professional body today see as rather amusing.

 

I was tempted to tag him in a comment on that post but thought better of it. Twelve years have passed; I doubt he’d remember.

I do though… 

31 October 2024 (Thursday) - BTLP-TACT Exercise

Being at a loose end I did another BTLP-TACT exercise. It gave me two cases

 

37718 – a sixty-two year old woman in A&E with a CVA needing group & save

She grouped as O Rh(D) Positive with antibody screen positive in cells 1 & 3. I requested antibody panels. The IAT panel was positive in cells 1, 3, 6, 9 and 10 corresponding with anti-Fy(a) but not ruling out anti-Cw or anti-Lu(a). The enzyme panel was negative which did rule out anti-Cw and anti-Lu(a).

98389 – an eighty-seven year old woman in out-patients also needing group & save.

Her ABO and Rh(D) groups were both indeterminate, and the antibody screen was positive in cell 2. I requested antibody panels. The IAT and enzyme panels were positive in cells 2 and 6 corresponding to anti-K .

 

I got the thumbs-up

29 October 2024 (Tuesday) - GMP e-learning

I did my Good Manufacturing Practice e-learning today. A useful little refresher…

29 October 2024 (Tuesday) - Westgard QC Update

The nice people at Westgard sent their newsletter today. It was a tad dry and a tad heavy going, but as always was one of the better sources of CPD. When you consider that much of what we do in the lab at the most basic level is measure stuff, working out just how good our measuring is must be pretty much fundamental to what we do.

28 October 2024 (Monday) - Transfusion Evidence Library Update

The nice people at the Transfusion Evidence Alert sent their update today. Some of it was a tad clinical, some a tad specialized, and (again) tranexamic acid features (it does that a lot).

ARTICLE OF THE MONTH Intravenous versus oral iron for anaemia among pregnant women in Nigeria (IVON): an open-label, randomised controlled trial. Afolabi, B.B., et al. (2024). The Lancet. Global Health. PICO Summary available +++++

TOP ARTICLES TC-325 superiority in malignant gastrointestinal bleeding - an individual patient data meta-analysis of randomized trials. Alali, A.A., et al. (2024). The American Journal of Gastroenterology. [Record in progress]. Pomalidomide for epistaxis in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia. Al-Samkari, H., et al. (2024). The New England Journal of Medicine. The efficacy, safety and effectiveness of hyperoncotic albumin solutions in patients with sepsis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Bannard-Smith, J., et al. (2024). Journal of the Intensive Care Society. Outcomes of kidney transplantation in highly HLA-sensitized patients treated with intravenous immuno-globulin, plasmapheresis and rituximab: a meta-analysis. Chandramohan, D., et al. (2024). Life. Balancing donor health and plasma collection: a systematic review of the impact of plasmapheresis frequency. D'Aes, T., et al. (2024). Transfusion Medicine Reviews. [Record in progress]. An evaluation of diethylhexyl phthalate free top & bottom in-line blood collection set with a new soft housing filter. Danilova, E., et al. (2024). Transfusion Medicine. [Record in progress]. The cost-effectiveness of preventing, diagnosing, and treating postpartum haemorrhage: a systematic review of economic evaluations. Ginnane, J.F., et al. (2024). PLoS Medicine. Efficacy and safety of recombinant human thrombopoietin for the treatment of chronic primary immune thrombocytopenia in children and adolescents: a multicentre, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III trial. Ma, J., et al. (2024). British Journal of Haematology. [Record in progress]. Intraoperative tranexamic acid administration in cranial meningioma surgery: a meta-analysis of prospective randomized, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled trials. Vychopen, M., et al. (2024). Frontiers in Oncology.

28 October 2024 (Monday) - Learning Monday

A normocytic anaemia with incredibly low ferritin? But stomach cancer… this is an anaemia due to a deficiency of both iron and vitamin B12.
 
I got it right.

27 October 2024 (Sunday) - Slide Saturday (!) Challenge

Saw this yesterday… Looks like haemoglobin C crystals to me…

Tuned in late today – it was. “The blood smear shows Hemoglobin C (HbC) crystals in a patient with hemoglobin C disease. HbC crystals form when a mutation in the beta-globin chain of hemoglobin replaces glutamic acid with lysine. This mutation makes HbC less soluble than HbA, forming hexagonal crystals (HbC crystals as seen in the peripheral smear). Individuals with one HbA gene and one HbC gene exhibit the HbC trait and are typically asymptomatic. In contrast, those with homozygous mutations for HbC have hemoglobin C disease, characterized by mild and chronic hemolytic anemia.”