Prevalence of human T-cell lymphotropic virus infections in Germany.

The extent of human T-cell lymphotropic retrovirus HTLV-I and HTLV-II infections in the general population in central Europe has not been investigated fully. Two hundred forty-eight thousand blood donors from southern Germany were examined serologically for antibodies to the human lymphotropic retroviruses HTLV-I and HTLV-II: 0.021% were confirmed positive and 0.056% were "indeterminate". A limited number of seropositives and "indeterminate" samples were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR): the seropositives were confirmed as positive and 43% of the "indeterminate" samples were PCR-positive. The range of 0.021% HTLV-positives in 248,000 donors, i.e. about two in 10,000 individuals, mirrors closely the published data for the United States.

[Combination of a simple hollow fiber system with leukocyte filter for production of leukocyte depleted erythrocyte concentrates and plasma]. / Kombination eines einfachen Hohlfaserfiltersystems mit einem Leukozytenfilter zur Herstellung leukozytendepletierter Erythrozytenkonzentrate und von Plasma.

Leukocyte-depleted red cell concentrate (RCC) and plasma were separated by a hollow fiber filter system combined with a leukocyte filter without any additional devices. The RCC with 100 ml additive solution had a weight of 329 g; hematocrit was 0.55, free hemoglobin 16 mg/dl; leukocytes were (0.6 +/- 0.6) x 10(9)/l. The plasma (268 g) contained 5.4 g/dl of total protein, and only a few blood cells; clotting factor VIII activity 75%, all satisfying the guidelines.

[Incidence of the detection of erythrocyte antibodies in relation to screening test cells]. / Nachweishäufigkeit erythrozytärer Antikörper (Ak) in Abhängigkeit von den verwendeten Suchtestzellen.

A variety of antibody screening tests are available to detect immunization in patients' sera. However, antibodies can be observed only if corresponding antigens are present on test cells used by an antibody screen. By comparing available test cell kits of different manufacturers we revealed various specificities of antigens present or absent on these cells. Using by an antibody screen Wr(a+), Co(b+) and Kp(a+) test cells additionally to available test cells, we detected in 1000 sera of patients 13 anti-Wr(a) and 1 anti-Co(b) besides 17 antibodies with different specificities.

[HTLV-I antibody screening of blood donors]. / HTLV-I-Antikörperscreening bei Blutspendern.

Routine screening of 344,266 blood donations of approximately 200,000 donors for anti-HTLV-I was done by enzyme immuno assay (EIA). Repeatedly reactive samples were confirmed by Western Blot (WB) and radio immuno precipitation assay (RIPA). The prevalence of anti-HTLV-I in Bavarian blood donors is 0.02-0.026%. The specificity of HTLV-I-EIA is 99.95%.