26 July 2018 (THursday) - BTLP-TACT


I’ve been given access to the BTLP- TACT website. It is very early days for me, but it seems that the website presents me with virtual cases that I might encounter in the blood bank and I have to interpret results and give my opinion.

Today’s case was a virtual stabbing in which I was required to come up with six units of blood rather urgently.

So far I’m rather struggling to get my head around the software, but it is still early days. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually… however I am paranoid that I’m going to be judged..

25 July 2018 (Wednesday) - Transfusion News email


 
The nice people at Transfusion News sent their update today. Why *do* some people make antibodies? Gestational thrombocytopenia… all good stuff…


July 18, 2018
Pathogen reduction technologies (PRTs) for platelets inactivate known and unknown viruses, bacteria, and parasites in addition to inactivating white blood cells. However, the hemostatic efficacy of PRT treated platelets is not clear. To this end, researchers conducted a randomized noninferiority trial over 6 years at 10 institutions in Canada, the [Read More]
July 16, 2018 | BBGuy Podcast
CE Episode! Alloimmunization has been a mystery for decades, but Chris Tormey has new answers for why patients make antibodies that we wish they didn't! [Listen Now]
Listen on Apple Podcast Get It on Google Plan
July 12, 2018
Gestational thrombocytopenia affects 5-10% of women with uncomplicated pregnancies. In order to gain a better understanding of the normal course of platelet counts and the potential severity of gestational thrombocytopenia, researchers evaluated platelet counts of 7351 pregnant women who delivered at Oklahoma University Medical Center from 2011 to 2014 [Read More]


24 July 2018 (Tuesday) - Anti-CD38 therapies


Here’s something interesting which came up in the Facebook Blood Bank Interest Group:

Daratumumab is something of which I’ve heard. Its anti CD38 makes it something of a pain in the blood bank. It would seem there’s several other drugs which work in the same sort of way.
The subsequent discussion on the post was interesting: I particularly found one paper rather relevant: