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....
Red cell autoagglutination.
Caused by IgM autoantibodies occurring in autoimmune haemolytic anaemia or can
be secondary to viral infections.
Aggravated by relatively
cold temperatures, the best way to get a reliable blood count is to warm the
blood sample prior to analysis.
A very good way to
enhance the auto agglutination is to position the blood count analyser directly
below the air-con outlet whilst rudely pooh-poohing what you are being told,
and then pretending to be surprised when cold agglutinins becomes a serious
issue when you can’t get a sensible result no matter how much you warm the
sample….
Speaking totally
hypothetically of course…
I got hold of the results of 2501DF1 todayNeuts 1.7 (median 0.8)Lymphs 14.1 (median 16.1)Monos 1.7 (median 1.0)My neuts and lymphs were a tad high, but when you consider the 2sd range for neuts was 0 – 2.6 and for monos was 0 – 5, that’s not too bad really. I suppose this illustrates the variability in manual diff counting
The nice people at Transfusion Evidence
Alert sent their update today. As usual there was a lot to take in, but if I
take my time reading it, some of it might soak in…
ARTICLE OF THE MONTH
Liberal vs. restrictive transfusion strategies for acute brain injury: a systematic review and frequentist-Bayesian meta-analysis.
Blot, P.L., et al. (2025). Intensive Care Medicine.
PICO SUMMARY
TOP ARTICLES
Effect of early administration of fibrinogen replacement therapy in traumatic haemorrhage: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials with narrative synthesis of observational studies.
Burt, T., et al. (2025). Critical Care.
Which is the best storage temperature to preserve the haemostatic quality of non-leukoreduced whole blood units collected under a military emergency protocol - cold or room temperature?
Degueldre, J., et al. (2025). Transfusion Clinique et Biologique. [Record in progress].
Single dose intravenous iron versus oral iron for treatment of maternal iron deficiency anemia: a randomized clinical trial.
Derman, R.J., et al. (2025). American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. [Record in progress].
Therapeutic plasma exchange accelerates immune cell recovery in severe COVID-19.
Guironnet-Paquet, A., et al. (2024). Frontiers in Immunology.
Direct antiglobulin test for the prediction of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia needing an intervention: a systematic review and diagnostic test accuracy meta-analysis.
Kumar Krishnegowda, V., et al. (2024). Frontiers in Pediatrics.
Enarodustat for the treatment of anemia in Chinese patients with non-dialysis chronic kidney disease: a phase 3 trial.
Liang, X.L., et al. (2025). Kidney Diseases.
Optimal dose and duration of iron supplementation for treating iron deficiency anaemia in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Rehman, T., et al. (2025). PLoS One.
Efficacy and safety of recombinant human thrombopoietin (rhTPO) on coagulation function and inflammatory factors in the treatment of patients with sepsis-related thrombocytopeni.
Wang, H., Chen, D., and He, M. (2025). Clinical and Applied Thrombosis/Hemostasis.
Transfusion of blood and blood products for the management of postpartum haemorrhage.
Williams, C.R., et al. (2025). The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
