Well,
I’ve heard of Chediak-Higashi syndrome, but don’t think I’ve actually seen it
in real life.. Here’s as good a place as any to
start with it.
It’s
not restricted to humans…
This is (supposed to be) a reflective diary by a (not very) anonymous biomedical scientist who works somewhere in the south of England. One day this diary may well be submitted to the Health and Care Professions Council as evidence of ongoing continual professional development....
16 August 2026 (Sunday) - I've Heard Of It...
15 August 2026 (Saturday) - DOAC
I finally got round to signing up to the
Werfen Academy today, and got full
marks on my first course “Introduction to Direct Oral Anticoagulants (DOACs)”.
Go me…
14 August 2026 (Friday) - Seriously?
I’m not quite old enough to remember the
first Moon landings, but I remember the Apollo 13 disaster and Skylab. I
remember Dolly (the first cloned sheep) and Louise Brown (the first
test-tube baby).
I had such high hopes for the future… it
turned out to be such
a disappointment.
12 August 2026 (Wednesday) - BTLP-TACT Exercise
It’s too hot outside. I’ll do a BTLP-TACT
exercise… I was presented with one case – a forty-nine year-old woman who
claimed to be tired all the time. A group and save was required.
She grouped as A Rh(D) Positive, but it was
one of those supposedly weak reactions so I called it A Rh indeterminate with
the proviso that I would send it to NHSBT.
The antibody screen was positive in cell
2 so I performed antibody panels.
The enzyme panel was 2+ in cells 2 and 6
corresponding to anti-K, and 4+ in cells 3 and five corresponding to anti-E.
The IAT panel was 2+ in cells 2, 3, 5 and
6 corresponding to anti-K and anti-E
I got the thumbs-up.
9 August 2026 (Sunday) - Slide Saturday Challenge
Well, it’s hereditary elliptocytosis,
isn’t it? This one looks particularly extreme with a lot of very bizarre red
cells.
Clinically this one would be severe,
some not so bad. I always remember discovering a case of H.E. in an eighty year
old chap who had an infection after a prostatectomy. Morphologically loads of
elliptocytes, clinically not a problem… he’d lived eighty years before anyone
had any cause to put his blood under a microscope… and even then it wasn’t
actually because of his red cells.
Here’s an article on the
matter…
7 August 2026 (Friday) - ABO Groups
ABO groups aren’t quite as
straightforward as we might like them to be…
Here’s a little
article on the subject…
4 August 2026 (Tuesday) - BTLP-TACT Exercise
Time for a BTLP-TACT exercise. I had two
cases:
15626 – a fifty-six year-old chap
needing two units of cryo to treat Factor VIII deficiency.
He grouped as A Rh(D) Positive with a
negative antibody screen.
According to https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4627369
Cryo is not recommended for Factor VIII deficiency so I didn’t issue any
73726 – a seventy-eight year old chap
needing four units of FFP for a pre-operative reversal of warfarin.
He grouped as O Rh(D) Positive with
anegative antibody screen.
According to https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9362864/
FFP is not the treatment of choice for the reversal of warfarin pre-operatively
so I didn’t issue any.
I got it right.
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