Radial artery occlusion, a rare presentation of Behçet's disease.

Behçet's disease (BD) is a multi-system inflammatory disorder which presents with recurrent orogenital ulceration, uveitis, and erythema nodosum. Medium vessel vasculitis of upper limb is extremely rare and it is only reported in patients with Behçet's disease on long follow up. Mean duration from diagnosis of disease to development of vasculitis is 5.8 years. We present a patient who presented with gangrene of fingers with absent radial pulse and during course of his illness he developed features of Behçet's disease. Diagnosis was established by clinical features and histopathology and patient was treated with steroids and colchicine.

Seropositivity of HBsAg, anti HCV and anti HIV among blood donors: a comparative study on three years of 5 years interval.

Blood safety comprises the provision of safe, adequate and quality blood components to the needy patients. A total of 6,179 donation were reviewed with 2377, 1561 and 2241 donations occurring in June to July in 1993, 1998 and 2003 respectively. Majority of the donors were males. 94.38% donors were in the age group of 18 - 45 years. The seropositivity of HBV infection declined over the three years but HCV and HIV infections showed an increase in 2003 following an initial decrease in 1998.

HIV sero-prevalence and knowledge, behaviour and practices regarding HIV/AIDS in specific population groups in Ludhiana, Punjab.

OBJECTIVES: To assess HIV serostatus, knowledge, behaviour and practices regarding HIV/AIDS among blood donors, pregnant women and the general population in Ludhiana and to find out any association between these factors. METHODS: The descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among blood donors attending the blood bank, pregnant women attending the antenatal clinics of the peripheral health centres of the department of Community Medicine, Christian Medical College Ludhiana, and the general population of the field practice areas of the Department, aged 15 years or more and willing to join the investigation. The study subjects were interviewed through a self-administered questionnaire and screened for HIV using ELISA technique. Seropositivity rates in the population groups and possible risk factors were compared, using EpiInfo 6.04d software. RESULTS: Prevalence of HIV infection was found to be 0.30 % (95 % CI 0.10 - 0.70) in the general population studied, 0.12 % (95 % CI 0.05 - 0.28) in the blood donors, and nil in the pregnant women. The respondents were deficient in knowledge about the modes of spread of HIV/AIDS. No significant association was established between HIV sero-positivity and gender, age group, education, occupation, HbsAg status, or knowledge about the modes of spread of HIV/AIDS. Sexually active unmarried young people 15-24 years old, those indulging in extra-marital sex, and those addicted to opium/poppy-husk were observed to be at higher risk of HIV infection. CONCLUSIONS: The studied population groups have very low HIV seroprevalence. Misconceptions and lack of knowledge need to be corrected through education and awareness to avoid high-risk behaviour and prevent HIV infection.

Voluntary donors-need for a second look.

Voluntary non-remunerated blood donation is the source of the safest blood supply to the transfusion service. In the Indian set up where voluntary donations are fewer and poorly structured, safety of blood could still be compromised. This study was carried out to find out the seroprevalence of transfusion transmitted diseases among replacement and voluntary donors. A retrospective study of replacement and voluntary donors over a three and a half year period was carried out and the seroprevalence for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B, hepatitis C, syphilis and malaria was noted. A total of 41122 donors were studied comprising of 94.7% replacement and 5.3% voluntary donors. The prevalence of transfusion transmitted diseases was marginally higher among voluntary donors (3.3%) as compared to replacement donors (2.9%). All cases of HIV were seen in the replacement donors while the figures for hepatitis B and C were marginally higher in the voluntary donors (p>0.05). Voluntary donations in our study were not voluntary in the real sense. There is a need to work on building a stronger voluntary donor base and to create awareness among the populace in order to gradually abolish the replacement donations; thereby ensuring the safety of blood and its products.

Use of the gel-based DiaMed-ID microtyping system for crossmatching enhances sensitivity.

A host of newer techniques have been introduced over the past decade in blood bank serological testing. One such technology which has been in vogue in the west since early 1990s is the gel test. The procedures used are standardized and they provide clear and stable reactions that improve result interpretation. The principle involves the differential passage of red cell agglutinates and free red blood cells through a dextran acrylamide gel. The results are stable and may be read even after many hours. The test is easy to perform, sensitive and reproducible. We report our experience in compatibility testing with use of the DiaMed micro typing system which is based on the gel technology. Over a one year period since this technology was introduced in our blood bank, we noticed a startling 65 fold rise (p<0.0001) in the reported number of incompatible units in one year which rose from a paltry 4 (0.02%) to 260 (1.6%). We found the DiaMed system easy to use and as our findings suggest it proved to be more sensitive than the conventional tube agglutination technique.