Acute transfusion reactions encountered in patients at a tertiary care centre in Punjab.

Background. Blood transfusion is a life-saving procedure, which can occasionally be unsafe and result in a spectrum of adverse events. We aimed to determine the characteristics and type of acute transfusion reactions occurring in patients at a tertiary care centre. Methods. A retrospective study was conducted at the Department of Immunohaematology and Blood Transfusion, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab. All acute transfusion reactions reported to the department from 1 Jan 2012 to 31 March 2013 were evaluated. All the adverse reactions were recorded, analysed and classified on the basis of their clinical features and laboratory tests. Results. During the study period, 45 092 blood components were issued from the department and 190 transfusion reactions (0.42%) were reported. The most frequent were febrile non-haemolytic transfusion reactions (54.2%) followed by allergic reactions (36.3%), haemolytic reactions (1%) and non-specific reactions (8.5%). Conclusion. Each transfusion has to be monitored carefully with prompt recognition and treatment of acute transfusion reactions to decrease transfusion-related morbidity and mortality. Data from a well-functioning haemovigilance system can be used as a quality indicator for monitoring blood transfusion safety and contribute to evidence-based transfusion medicine.

Intra-operative autotransfusion--a simple and cost effective method.

Recovery of intrathoracic and intraperitoneal blood and reinfusion by autotransfusion has been demonstrated to be safe and practical in selected cases. This study has basically aimed at using a very simple method for collection and reinfusion of blood in haemothorax and haemoperitoneum. Autotransfusion was done in 50 cases admitted in Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana who were diagnosed to have haemothorax or haemoperitoneum which fulfilled the set criteria. There were increased haemoglobin levels in 26 patients and a decreased haemoglobin in 24 patients. The coagulation profile was deranged in 7 patients pre-operatively while it was deranged in only 2 patients postoperatively. There was no significant change in renal function tests and liver function tests preoperatively and postoperatively. This study had shown that intra-operative autotransfusion with this very simple, affordable and easily available technique is feasible and practical and its use should be encouraged.

Study of nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) in lesions of gallbladder.

Tissue sections from 100 specimens of gallbladder including 40 cases of chronic cholecystitis, 30 cases of epithelial hyperplasia and 30 cases of well, moderately and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of gallbladder were studied for argyrophillic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs). The arithmetic mean +/- S.D. were calculated for each category. This showed NOR counts of chronic cholecystitis--(1.89+/-0.96), epithelial hyperplasia--(3.99+/-1.03), well differentiated adenocarcinoma (WDCA)--(7.04+/-1.34), moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma (MDCA)--(7.52+/-0.97) and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (PDCA)--(8.37+/-1.27). The study revealed increasing number of AgNORS from cases of chronic cholecystitis to epithelial hyperplasia to carcinoma gallbladder, but a considerable overlap in AgNOR counts of individual cases was observed suggesting that though AgNOR count cannot act as a specific diagnostic parameter for diagnosis of early carcinoma & dysplasia in isolated cases, they may prove to be a good adjunct to presently available imaging techniques and cytology.

Study of prevalence & correlation between HIV and syphilis among blood donors in a teaching hospital, Ludhiana, India.

In the present study, total of 21014 healthy blood donors were screened, out total, 20 (0.095%) were found to be positive for syphilis and 18 (0.086%) were found to be positive for human immunodeficiency virus, So, a positive correlation was seen between the positivity of syphilis & HIV. This supports the idea that syphilis screening of blood donors should be continued.