9 December 2021 (Thursday) - Convalescent Plasma

 For a while we were issuing convalescent plasma and taking art in a trial about its use. The result are in: https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/who-advises-against-use-of-convalescent-plasma-for-covid-19/ 

“Current evidence shows no improvement in survival and other important measures Convalescent plasma (a transfusion of blood plasma from someone who has recovered from covid-19) is not recommended for patients with covid-19, says a WHO Guideline Development Group of international experts in The BMJ today.
Despite its initial promise, current evidence shows that it does not improve survival nor reduce the need for mechanical ventilation, and it is costly and time-consuming to administer.”

 

21 April 2021 (Wednesday) - V.I.T.T.

Here’s a rather useful flowchart for reviewing suspected cases of Vaccine-Induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia. Many thanks to the ISTH for this…

9 April 2021 (Friday) - COVID and ITP

After a year of a global pandemic, getting a vaccine in what was an incredibly short time frame was remarkable to say the least. However it would seem that in some people this vaccine is causing a form of ITP.

Here’s what the ISTH have to say on the matter.

14 February 2021 (Sunday) - Atypical Lymphs in COVID-19

Here’s an interesting article that appeared on the Facebook Hematology Interest group page.

The article on Facebook referred to something published in the British Journal of Medicine, and said “This study was published in the British Journal of Medicine on the Prognostic value of atypical lymphs in Covid patients. It is a scientific research publication, so maybe a little long for some people. No time to read? The Introduction in the beginning and the discussion and conclusion at the end maybe of interest to our members”

 Since alacrity is advised, here’s the conclusion:

In summary, this paper has three main contributions:

1.We found that RL circulating in blood in COVID-19 patients are related to a better evolution and prognosis.

2.We demonstrated that these atypical reactive lymphoid cells can  be  detected  by  morphology  in  the  smear  review,  being  the computerised approaches proposed herein useful to enhance a more objective recognition.

3.We found that the presence of RL in COVID-19 patients suggests  an  abundant  production  of  virus-specific  T  cells,  thus  explaining the better outcome of patients showing these cells circulating in blood.

The second point isn’t written very well, but it implies that an automated microscope is more objective and reproducible than one operated by human observer. I suspect there is a lot of truth in that…