Blood Transfusion News and Research

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Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood or blood-based products from one person into the circulatory system of another. Blood transfusions can be life-saving in some situations, such as massive blood loss due to trauma, or can be used to replace blood lost during surgery.

Researchers receive $6 million NIH grant to improve treatment for Chagas disease

Scientists at The University of Texas at El Paso have received nearly $6 million from the National Institutes of Health to improve treatment and develop new diagnostic tools to assess post-therapeutic outcomes for patients with Chagas disease.

29 Aug 2018

Scientists create universal blood type using enzymes from gut bacteria

Scientists have discovered enzymes from species of the gut microbiome that can convert A and B blood types into the universal type O.

21 Aug 2018

Blood management program associated with fewer transfusions in orthopedic patients

A patient blood management program designed to limit the amount of transfused blood orthopedic patients undergoing common surgeries such as hip and knee replacement receive was associated with fewer transfusions, reduced blood use and improved outcomes, reports a study published in the Online First edition of Anesthesiology, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

20 Aug 2018

Researchers solve mystery of final blood group system

Ever since the blood type was discovered in 1962, no one has been able to explain why some people become Xga positive while others are Xga negative.

16 Jul 2018

Study reveals link between gastrointestinal flora and acute lung injury after blood transfusions

Knowledge that the gastrointestinal flora affects both healthy physiological processes and various disease mechanisms has increased in recent years.

11 Jul 2018

Robotic surgery appears to be as effective as open surgery in treating bladder cancer

The first comprehensive study comparing the outcomes of robotic surgery to those of traditional open surgery in any organ has found that the surgeries are equally effective in treating bladder cancer.

22 Jun 2018

WHO Regional Director urges African countries to strengthen national blood services

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moet has called on African countries to strengthen national blood services to enhance universal access to safe blood.

11 Jun 2018

Whole genome sequencing could prevent transfusion reactions

Researchers have recently published a study which may reduce complications and save lives for blood transfusion recipients.

18 May 2018

Prenatal test to determine child's rhesus factor found to be reliable, but benefit is unclear

If the blood of a pregnant woman is rhesus-negative and the blood of the fetus is rhesus-positive, the woman may develop antibodies, which can cause severe harm to subsequent children in particular.

16 May 2018

Mice study illustrates potential risks associated with prion transmission

Familial human prion diseases are passed within families and are associated with 34 known prion protein mutations.

9 Mar 2018

Study shows safety, efficacy of intravenous bevacizumab treatment for HHT related bleeding

Intravenous bevacizumab should be considered as a first-line therapy for the treatment of refractory bleeding in patients with severe hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, reports Mayo Clinic Proceedings

29 Jan 2018

Sickle cell patients, families and doctors face a ‘fight for everything’

The day before his 30th birthday, Marqus Valentine was in a panic. "I was so scared for midnight to come rolling around because subconsciously I was like, 'This is it. Tomorrow’s my last day on Earth,'" he said.

27 Dec 2017

Chagas disease presents real public health problem to Canadians

Believe it or not, a tropical blood parasite native to Latin America could be harmful to Canadians. Infectious diseases like malaria or Zika may have dominated recent headlines but Chagas - the "Kissing Bug" disease - is in the spotlight following the publication of a new case study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

13 Dec 2017

Transfusion dependence reduces access to high-quality end-of-life care for leukemia patients

For patients with advanced leukemia, access to high-quality end-of-life care appears to be reduced in those dependent on blood transfusions, according to a new study being presented during the 59th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in Atlanta.

13 Dec 2017

Experts endorse recommendations for restrictive blood transfusions

By analyzing data from randomized clinical trials comparing blood transfusion approaches, Johns Hopkins experts, along with colleagues at Cleveland Clinic and NYU Langone Medical Center, endorse recommendations for blood transfusions that reduce blood use to improve patient safety and outcomes.

20 Nov 2017

Sickle cell patients suffer discrimination, poor care — and shorter lives

For more than a year, NeDina Brocks-Capla avoided one room in her large, brightly colored San Francisco house — the bathroom on the second floor.

6 Nov 2017

Pioneering heart device found to be safe and effective

A new study has found that a pioneering device to repair heart valves is safe and effective, and can reduce the invasiveness and side effects of conventional mitral valve surgery.

1 Nov 2017

Researchers develop illuminated pajamas for babies being treated for jaundice

Alone, naked, and with their eyes covered for protection: this is how newborns lie in incubators when they are being treated for jaundice. Irradiation with blue light in an incubator is necessary because toxic decomposition products of the blood pigment hemoglobin are deposited in the skin in newborns with jaundice.

31 Oct 2017

Blood transfusions should be gender matched between donor and recipient

An emergency blood transfusion mandates matching of the blood types so that the donor and the recipient are compatible in their blood types. There is no other matching between the blood bag and the recipient – race, ethnicity, religion, gender etc.

18 Oct 2017

FDA grants approval for new test to detect Zika virus in blood donations

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the cobas Zika test, a qualitative nucleic acid test for the detection of Zika virus RNA in individual plasma specimens obtained from volunteer donors of whole blood and blood components, and from living organ donors.

6 Oct 2017