Transfusion medicine sites

Links compiled by Pat Letendre, Medical Laboratory Science, University of Alberta. Reference:

http://www.ualberta.ca/~pletendr/bb.html

Last updated 13 February 2000

Also see these sites:

TM modules
MLSCI 270 (Introduction to Transfusion Medicine)
MLSCI 370 (clinical rotation)
Blood bank case studies
Hematology
LIS
Commercial sites

Alternatives to Allogeneic Blood Transfusion

Better blood transfusion. We must use donated blood better and consider alternatives . [BMJ 1999;318:1435-6]

Blood substitutes

Artificial blood includes a thorough discussion of oxygen-carrying blood substitutes.
It's sooner - or later - for blood substitutes from CAP Today (Oct. 98).
Hemolink, an HBOC developed by Hemosol (a Canadian company), made from outdated human blood. [There are great graphics at this site.]
Hemopure, an HBOC developed by Biopure Corporation, made from bovine blood.
Oxygent, a perflurochemical developed by Alliance Pharmaceutical.
Polyheme, an HBOC developed by Northfield Laboratories, made from outdated human blood.

Jehovah's Witness position on blood transfusion.

No blood!, the bloodless medicine and surgery network.

Patient's Guide to Blood Transfusion, developed by the California Department of Health Services and the Blood Centers of California.

Associations and organizations

AABB , the AABB's site on the WWW. Members can access discussion groups--have your membership number ready.
ABC, America's Blood Centers, a network of 72 not-for-profit, independent community blood centers.
ARC, the American Red Cross.
Armed Services Blood Program of the USA has many useful resources.
ASBT, Australasian Institute of Blood Transfusion.
ASHI, the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics.
Association of Voluntary Blood Donors of West Bengal, India.
AVIS, Associazione Volontari Italiani Sangue (Association of Italian Blood Donors).
BC-PBCO, the Provincial Blood Coordinating Office in British Columbia, Canada.
Blood donors in Denmark, a non-profit association aimed at securing sufficient blood donors throughout Denmark.
BTSB, the Blood Transfusion Service Board of Ireland.
CAP , the College of American Pathologists. The archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine have many useful TM articles.
CHS, the Canadian Hemophilia Society.
DRK blutspendedienst (blood donor service), German Red Cross (Deutsches Rotes Kreuz), Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
INTS, the Institut National de la Transfusion Sanguine in France. On the main page, there is a link to an English version. Also, if you click on Club d'Actualité Transfusionnelle (CAT), and understand a bit of French, you can obtain a password to access an up-to-date bibliography of transfusion references.
ISBT, the International Society of Blood transfusion.
New Zealand Blood Service
SCARF : Serum, Cells, and Rare Fluid Exchange.
Singapore BTS
National blood service-UK
Welsh Blood Service

Automation: CAP Today: "Blood banks hail automation age" : October,1998.

Automation: CAP Today: "Blood banks step up move to automation" : October,1999.

Canadian Animal Blood Bank, the only organised veterinary blood bank in Canada.

Animal Blood Bank, specializing in canine transfusions.

Blood bank guy, the homepage of D. Joe Chaffin, MD.

Canada's blood system:

Blood Safety Council, whose purpose is to provide advice to the Minister of Health on national blood-related matters, especially as related to regulation and disease surveillance.
Canadian Blood Services, the organization that operates Canada's new (post-Red Cross) blood system (except in the province of Quebec).
You can access CBS responses to audits by the Bureau of Biologics and Radiopharmaceuticals (BBR).
Hema-Quebec, the organization that operates Canada's blood system in the province of Quebec.
Krever Report on the Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada (PDF format).
Cost no object as new agency tries to restore blood system's credibility [CMAJ 1999;160:699-700]
The sensibility of safety: reflections on the Krever inquiry's final report [CMAJ 1998;158:59-60]
Long before Krever's report, blood scare had changed face of medicine [CMAJ 1998;158:89-91]
There's more to Krever's report than the blood issue -- much more [ CMAJ 1998;158:92-4 ]
The hepatitis C disaster [CMAJ 1998;158:1461-2 ]
Hepatitis C as medical misadventure [CMAJ 1998;158:1461-2 ]

Cord blood banking

Cord blood registry, from the University of Arizona.
Cord blood stem cell transplantation (Clinical Reviews, 1998). You need to be registered at the Medscape site and to obtain a free userid and password.
Cord news a newsletter from the Milan cord blood bank.
Future of Placental-Blood Transplantation (N Engl J Med; Nov 26/98)

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)

nvCJD/BSE/Mad Cow Disease: articles from the British Medical Journal.
BSE-CJD , an extensive site from England maintained by Steve Dealle, Burnley General Hospital, UK.
New variant Creutzfeldt/Jakob disease and the blood supply: Is it time to face the music? [CMAJ 1998;159:669-70]
The quandary of Creutzfeldt/Jakob disease [CMAJ 1998;159:789-92]
Is Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Transmitted in Blood? , a Medscape article by Ricketts, et al (LCDC, Ottawa & Montreal Neurological Institute, Canada) You will need to register at the Medscape site, but it's worth it .

Hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation

Transplants, a page for bone marrow, PBPC, and umbilical cord blood transplants.

Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn: Progenitor Cells and Late Effects an editorial with an historical overview of HDN (N Engl J Med, March 19, 1998)

Hematology/Medmark an extensive hematology/transfusion medicine site from South Korea.

History of blood and its military application from the American Armed Services Blood Program.

ICCBBA , the site of the International Council for Commonality in Blood Banking Automation. Good source for ISBT Code 128 info.

Immunology-Medmark. Wow! All the immunology sites on the Web are accessible from this page.

Institute for Transfusion Medicine in Pittsburgh

Journals and newsletters

BMJ-TM, the British Medical Journal' s collection on hematology/transfusion medicine.
Current Issues in TM from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center .
Immunohematology, Journal of Blood Group Serology and Education from the American Red Cross.
TM updates (TMU)-recent and TMU archives from Institute for Transfusion Medicine, Pittsburgh.
Transfusion, the journal of the AABB. The free trial ends March1, 2000.
Vox Sanguinous, the Journal of the International Society for Blood Transfusion (ISBT). Also see BioMedNet below.
BioMedNet, a site that has abstracts of Vox Sanguinous articles online. You will need to register, but it's free.

Online books and manuals

Administering blood, from the NIH Clinical Center Nursing Department.
Q & A about Transfusion Practices (ed. 3) from the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
Fundamentals of Transfusion Medicine by Lawrence D. Petz
Hematology and transfusion user's guide from Pembrookshire, UK. Also see Pink pages for other user manuals.
London BB , transfusion service manual from the London Health Sciences Center in London, Ontario.
Oregon BB , from the Oregon Health Sciences University, has its manual available in pdf (needs Acrobat Reader).
Blood Transfusion Policies and Standard Practices from the University of Michigan Hospitals.

Regulatory & Quality Issues

Quality systems, a page of QA-related links .

Rhesus site, by Willy Flegel, Ulm, Germany. This is a great site for Rh at the molecular level.

SBB education sites

BB(ASCP) & SBB(ASCP) has the examination content guidelines from the ASCP Board of Registry for Technologist in Blood Banking, BB(ASCP) and Specialist in Blood Banking, SBB(ASCP) certification.
SBB-Cincinatti , for graduate studies in transfusion medicine (MSc/SBB) at the University of Cincinnati.

Transfusion services and blood centers

These particular blood centers have excellent educational resources.

Transfusion therapy

First, to get a global perspective, see A memorable patient-For want of a bag of blood [British Medical Journal 2000;320:365]

Blood component tutor from the Hoxworth Blood Center in Cincinnati.

Blood Components Reference Manual from Puget Sound Blood Center.

Blood components-Part 1 and Part 2 from London Health Sciences Centre, Canada.

Component therapy from the University of Michigan Hospitals

Fibrin glue from the Tissue Adhesive Center, University of Virginia.

Guidelines for using solvent detergent treated plasma from the American Armed Services Blood Program.

Plasma alternatives from the Institute For Transfusion Medicine in Pittsburgh.

Transfusions in critically ill patients[editorial]. N Engl J Med 1999;340.

A multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial of transfusion requirements in critical care. N Engl J Med 1999;340:409-17.

Transfusion-transmissable infections

Maximizing blood safety from the American Red Cross.
NAT/GAT from the AABB (BULLETIN #99-3), provides an excellent discussion and explanation of PCR testing, also called nucleic acid testing (NAT) and gene amplification testing (GAT) as it applies to donor screening,including implications for patients who may receive blood before testing is complete, especially platelets.
Also see an addendum, added because of a controversy about consent and liability if PCR-positive blood is transfused.
Hepatitis G Virus , an editorial on the clinical implications of hepatitis G virus by Harvey Alter in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Prospective investigation of transfusion transmitted infection in recipients of over 20 000 units of blood by Regan FAM, Hewitt P, John A J Barbara JAJ, Contreras M. [BMJ 2000;320 403-6]
Risks of transfusion from the Candian Society of Hemophilia.
Surveillance for Occupationally Acquired HIV Infection: United States, 1981-1992. MMWR 1992;41(43);823-5.
U.S. Public Health Service Guidelines for Testing and Counseling Blood and Plasma Donors for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Antigen. MMWR 1996; 45(No. RR-2). [Requires Acrobat Reader]
Parvovirus B19 from the CDC.