Follow-up program for blood donors with unconfirmed screening results reveals a high false-positive rate in Dalian, China.

BACKGROUND: Chinese blood donors with unconfirmed serological and/or molecular screening results are deferred permanently. This study investigated the implementation and performance of a follow-up program aiming to improve the notification and management of deferred donors in Dalian, China. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: From January 2013 to February 2018, 411,216 donations were tested for HBsAg, anti-HCV, anti-HIV/HIV antigen, and antibodies to Treponema pallidum. HBV, HCV, and HIV nucleic acid testing (NAT) was performed in mini-pools of six or in individual donations (IDs). Reactive donations were evaluated further with alternative serological assays and ID-NAT re-testing. A follow-up procedure was developed to evaluate a subset of deferred donors that were either potential NAT yield cases, serology non-reactive and NAT non-repeated reactive (NRR), or serology NRR irrespective of NAT result. RESULTS: Serological and molecular routine, plus supplemental testing, identified HBV, HCV, HIV, and TP in 503 (0.12%), 392 (0.09%), 156 (0.04%), and 2041 (0.49%) donations, respectively. Overall, 683 of 4156 (16.4%) eligible donors and 205 donors deferred prior 2013 participated in the program. They included 664 serology NRR and 224 NAT yield cases, and 58.8% repeat donors. All markers combined, follow-up documented false reactivity, primary acute infections, and OBI in 61.9% (550/888), 3.3% (29/888), and 12.8% (114/888) of these donors, respectively. Isolated anti-HBc or anti-HBs reactivity was observed in 22% of cases. CONCLUSION: Follow-up testing refined infection status in 78.0% (693/888) of deferred donors with unconfirmed screening results. This high false-positive rate encouraged to reevaluate the current screening strategies and to consider donor reentry.

An integrated approach combining HPLC, GC/MS, NIRS, and chemometrics for the geographical discrimination and commercial categorization of saffron.

In the present study, an integrated approach combining HPLC/DAD, GC/MS, near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, and chemometrics was used to geographically discriminate saffron samples from Iran and China. Chinese and Iranian samples can be well-separated based on HPLC data analysed by a principal component analysis and an orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis. Picrocrocin and two types of crocins were found to be the discriminating variables, and the Chinese samples had higher contents of safranal and picrocrocin but lower cis-crocin 3Gg, kaempferol-3-O-sophoroside and isophorone. Furthermore, an NIR method was successfully established to rapidly distinguish the Chinese and Iranian samples. The relationship between an ISO standard and the contents of the chemical indices was also studied. The results indicated that the ISO standard should be revised, especially for analysing safranal.

[Research progress on quality evaluation of saffron].

Saffron, a precious spice and a traditional medicinal herb in the international trade market, has attracted much attention about its quality evaluation.Saffron has been successfully cultivated in some areas in China,such as Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, but few studies were focused on the quality difference between saffron cultivated in China and in foreign countries, which obstructed the entrance of saffron cultivated in China into international trade market. The paper is to review the current research progress on quality evaluation of saffron from the following respects： the chemical composition, the identification of authenticity and adulterants, the detection of artificial colorants, the indexes and methods of quality evaluation,the quality evaluation of different specifications in the international trade market, and the parameters which affected the quality of saffron.