The Effect of Storage on Platelets in Platelet Rich Plasma and Platelet Concentrate

Introduction: Platelets are routinely isolated from wholeblood and stored in plasma for 5 days. The platelets undergovarious storage changes starting from collection, processingto storage and the underlying conditions within the patientswhich may affect the therapeutic benefit to the recipient. Studyaimed to assess the quality of platelets in platelet rich plasmaand platelet concentrate and to evaluate the effects of storageon platelets in platelet rich plasma and platelet concentrate.Material and methods: The study was carried out in theDepartment of Transfusion Medicine and Department ofMedical Laboratory Technology in Government MedicalCollege, Thiruvananthapuram after obtaining approval fromthe Institutional Ethical Committee. The study period was sixmonths. The samples were collected from platelet rich plasmaand platelet concentrate bags under sterile conditions. Theirquality was assessed using the parameters such as swirling,volume of the platelet concentrate, platelet count, WBC countand pH on day 0, day 3 and day 5 of storage.Results: A total of 64 samples were evaluated and of these95% have fullfilled all 5 parameters of quality control with ascore 5 and 5% had score 4. Thus in our study majority of theprepared units were of the desired quality. All the parameterswere assessed and the results obtained on both the units werewell above the values of recommended norms.Conclusion: The quality of platelet concentrates weremaintained well within the usual 5 days thus an extension ofplatelet storage time is recommended.

Antimicrobial prescription patterns for common acute infections in some rural & urban health facilities of India.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Irrational use of antimicrobials is a key factor behind rapidly spreading antimicrobial resistance in microorganisms. This study was undertaken to determine the rate and pattern of antimicrobial prescribing in patients with uncomplicated acute respiratory infections, fever and diarrhoea attending a few rural and urban health settings. METHODS: The study was done in primary and secondary health care facilities of public/government and private settings at four sites in India. Patients with fever, cough, diarrhoea or ear, nose or throat infections of < 7 days were included. Pregnant women, lactating mothers, infants, seriously ill patients and patients with bloody diarrhoea or purulent nasal or ear discharge were excluded. RESULTS: Overall antimicrobial prescription rate was 69.4 per cent (95% CI 67.1, 71.7). Wide variation was observed (Thiruvananthapuram 47.6%, Lucknow 81.8%, Chennai 73.1% and Vellore 76.5%). Physicians practicing in rural and public/government settings prescribed antimicrobials more frequently than those in urban and private settings (83.8, 81.9, 68.3 and 68.2% respectively). Antimicrobials were more frequently prescribed for patients presenting with fever. Highest rate was noticed for children aged between 6 and 18 yr. Patients of the high-income group received antimicrobials more frequently (72.7%). In both public/ government and private settings, for patients who purchased medicines, the rate was higher (82.4 and 68.9% respectively), vs. those receiving free medicines (70.2 and 46.2% respectively). Two third of all antimicrobials prescribed were penicillins and co-trimoxazole, and > 40 per cent of prescriptions from private sector were quinolones and cephalosporins. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed that prescription of antimicrobials for acute respiratory infections and diarrhoea was extremely common and warrants interventional strategies.

Whole lung lavage: the salvage therapy for pulmonary alveolar proteinosis.

A 53-year-old school teacher presented with progressive exertional breathlessness and dry cough of three months duration. His diagnosis was confirmed as pulmonary alveolar proteinosis on open lung biopsy. In about three months, the disease progressed to life threatening respiratory failure. He was subjected to whole lung lavage (WLL) as a salvage therapy. The technical details of WLL performed on this patient are described. At six months follow up, he was clinically and functionally stable and leading a near normal life.

Arginine protection against ammonia toxicity in exhausted rat.

Arginine administration (5 m moles/kg/day) to albino rats for 7 days, revealed that this vital basic amino acid possesses latent potentiality for the accentuation of urea cycle or at least for arginase activity. The mitigation of ammonia toxicity was observed to be more effective in the case of gastrocnemius and red vastus as compared to white vastus. Further, ammonia and lactate levels were also decreased by arginine in blood and thereby delaying the onset of fatigue by preventing ammonotoxemia and lactic acidemia.

Skeletal muscle protein metabolism under denervation atrophy in dog, Canis domesticus.

Denervated dog gastrocnemius muscle has shown a progressive decrease in total protein content, alanine aminotransferase (AIAT), aspartate aminotransferase (AAT) and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) activity levels and elevation in free amino acid, ammonia, urea, glutamine contents and AMP deaminase activity levels during post-neurectemic days. The possible implications of these findings are discussed in relation to denervation atrophy.

Alterations in some dehydrogenase profiles of sciatectomized toad gastrocnemius muscle-metabolic modifications by malate.

Sciatectomized toad gastrocnemius has shown a progressive loss in lactate (LDH), succinate (SDH) and malate (MDH) dehydrogenase activities and elevation of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) activity during post-neurectemic days. The possible role of malate in the restoration of metabolic homeostasis in denervated muscle is discussed.

A biphasic compartmentation of neuro-transmission associated metabolic patterns during electro-induced axoplasmic transport in sheep medulla oblongata.

In the sheep medulla oblongata, on the induction of polarity by the applied voltage gradient of direct current along the length, the enzymes such as acetylcholinesterase and glutamate dehydrogenase showed anodal transport while the enzyme arginase showed cathodal transport indicating the possession of negative and positive charge densities on the enzymes. These studies indicated that the glutamate bound metabolism, one towards ammonia formation and the other towards the energy production and neural transmission, have opposed electro-characteristics. The acetylcholinesterase system had anodal characteristics coupled to the glutamate dehydrogenase patterns. The existence of two charge based compartmentation is envisaged in the neural tissue.