37718 – a sixty-two year old woman in A&E with a CVA needing group & saveShe 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 .
31 October 2024 (Thursday) - BTLP-TACT Exercise
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. +++++ |
28 October 2024 (Monday) - Learning Monday
27 October 2024 (Sunday) - Slide Saturday (!) Challenge
26 October 2024 (Saturday) - FFP & Cryoprecipitate
Following
on from the last BTLP-TACT exercise, I had a little look on Google to remind
myself…
Fresh frozen
plasma (FFP) is recommended for a variety of conditions,
including:
·
Bleeding FFP is used
to prevent or stop bleeding, or to replace coagulation factors in patients
with abnormal coagulation tests. It can be used for patients with: ·
Disseminated
intravascular coagulation (DIC) ·
Bleeding
associated with acute blood loss ·
Bleeding
in patients with decompensated liver disease ·
Warfarin
overdose with life-threatening bleeding · ·
Surgery FFP is used
for patients with abnormal coagulation tests who are undergoing a planned
surgery or invasive procedure.
·
Plasma
exchange FFP is used
for plasma exchange in patients with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura
(TTP) or hyperviscosity syndrome.
·
Factor
deficiency FFP is used
to replace coagulation factors in patients with congenital or acquired factor
deficiency.
·
Trauma FFP is used
for trauma patients requiring massive transfusion.
|
Fresh frozen
plasma (FFP) is NOT recommended in the following situations:
·
When
there are more effective treatments FFP is not
recommended when there are more effective treatments for the condition, such
as vitamin K, cryoprecipitate, or factor VIII.
·
When
blood volume can be replaced FFP should
not be used as a volume expander unless there is active bleeding and
coagulation deficiencies. ·
To
reverse anticoagulation FFP should
not be used to reverse anticoagulation caused by heparin, direct thrombin
inhibitors, or direct factor Xa inhibitors. ·
For
disseminated intravascular coagulation FFP is not
recommended for disseminated intravascular coagulation without bleeding. ·
For
vitamin K deficiency FFP should
not be used to reverse vitamin K deficiency for neonates or patients in
intensive care units.
·
For
patients with normal clotting FFP should
not be used for patients who are bleeding due to a surgical cause and who
have normal clotting.
·
As
a circulating volume replacement FFP should
never be used as circulating volume replacement.
|
Cryoprecipitate
is recommended for patients who have low levels of
clotting proteins, especially fibrinogen, or who are bleeding or have a risk
of bleeding: ·
Bleeding Cryoprecipitate
can be used to prevent or control bleeding in patients whose blood doesn't
clot properly. ·
Invasive
procedures Cryoprecipitate
can be used before an invasive procedure in patients with significant
hypofibrinogenemia. ·
Massive
transfusions Cryoprecipitate
is often used when a patient needs a large number of blood components at
once.
·
Fibrinogen
deficiency Cryoprecipitate
can be used to treat acquired fibrinogen deficiency or dysfibrinogenaemia. ·
Disseminated
intravascular coagulation (DIC) Cryoprecipitate
can be used to treat DIC.
|
Cryoprecipitate
is NOT recommended for the following conditions:
·
Hemophilia
A Cryoprecipitate
should not be used to treat Hemophilia A unless other factor VIII
preparations are not available. ·
Von
Willebrand disease Cryoprecipitate
should not be used to treat von Willebrand disease unless the patient does
not respond to DDAVP.
·
Factor
XIII deficiency Cryoprecipitate
is not usually given for Factor XIII deficiency because virus-inactivated
concentrates of this protein are available. ·
Congenital
afibrinogenemia or dysfibrinogenemia Cryoprecipitate
should not be used to treat these conditions. ·
Factor
deficiencies Cryoprecipitate
should not be used to treat factor deficiencies when specific factor
concentrates are available
|
26 October 2024 (Saturday) - BTLP-TACT Exercise
64755: A sixty two year old woman in the gynaecology clinic needing group and save.She grouped as A Rh(D) Positive with a negative antibody screen.49542: A ninety one year old chap needing group and save and four units of FFP for bleeding varices.He grouped as O Rh(D) Positive with a negative antibody screen.I didn’t select any FFP as it is contraindicated in cases of bleeding varices.
24 October 2024 (Thursday) - Could Be Anything
24 October 2024 (Thursday) - Haemoglobinopathies
I’m often
grumbling about how I don’t get useful CPD… here’s
something of interest. A post to Facebook from a haemoglobinopathy laboratory
in the middle-east with the sort of cases we rarely (if ever) see here in the UK.
I used to be quite the whizz at haemoglobinopathies back in the day…
21 October 2024 (Monday) - Learning Monday
20 October 2024 (Sunday) - BTLP-TACT Exercise
It gave me two cases:
40274 – A sixty eight year old woman needing two units of blood tomorrow for surgery.The ABO group was indeterminate but the Rh(D) group was negative. Fortunately the antibody screen was negative. I selected two units of O Rh(D) Negative blood.97135 – a sixty nine year old chap from the renal clinic needing group & save. My heart sank when I saw this one. It’s O Rh(D) positive, but with a weak D. But the BTLP-TACT does odd things, so I called it O with an indeterminate D group. Even though it wasn’t.The antibody screen was negative… I was grateful for small mercies.