Medical Laboratory and Biomedical Science

Sunday, April 7, 2013

A Febrile Blood Donor

A 4-day-old neonate born prematurely at 29 weeks gestation developed thrombocytopenia (platelet count 43 × 10⁹/L) with associated severe pulmonary and intracranial hemorrhaging. Urgent transfusions with 10 mL/kg of packed red cells and 10 mL/kg of platelet concentrate were given. These were sourced from blood donated 2 days earlier in Singapore by a 21-year-old female university student who was clinically well at the time. The day after these blood products were given to the neonate, the blood donor contacted the blood transfusion service to inform them that she was now sick with a febrile flu-like illness. Her blood donation screening plasma sample was retrieved and tested by PCR for several viruses, including dengue, chikungunya, enterovirus, and Epstein-Barr virus.

Read more:
A Febrile Blood Donor

Source: AACC

Art and Science of Laboratory Medicine

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Inherited Genetic Variations Have Major Impact on Childhood Leukemia Risk

Humans have between 20,000 and 25,000 genes that carry instructions for assembling the proteins that do the work of cells. Work led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital found that children who inherit certain variations in four particular genes are at much higher risk of developing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

The study also showed that Hispanic patients were more likely than patients of European or African ancestry to inherit high-risk versions of two of these genes. This discovery points to at least one reason for that difference.

Source: Advanced

Art and Science of Laboratory Medicine

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Saturday, April 6, 2013

WHO Quiz on World Health Day 2013

World Health Day is celebrated on 7 April to mark the anniversary of the founding of WHO in 1948. Each year a theme is selected for World Health Day that highlights a priority area of public health concern in the world.

The theme for 2013 is high blood pressure.

Regional office for region South East Asia provides a quiz - What is your score?

Open quiz here:
Quiz on World Health Day 2013