Real-time cloud system for managing blood units and convalescent plasma for COVID-19 patients

<span>In health care systems, blood management services are essential to saving lives. In such systems, when a unit of blood is required, if the system is not able to provide it on time, sometimes this may lead to patient death, especially in critical cases. Unfortunately, even if the required blood unit is available within the system, contradictions may occur and the required blood unit may not be allocated to critical cases on time, due to the allocation of these units to lower priority cases or due to the isolated operate of blood banks within these systems. So, to overcome these obstacles, we proposed a real-time system on a cloud, to managing blood units within the whole health care system. This system will allocate blood units depends on the deadline and the severity of the case that needs blood, in addition to the types, quantities, and position of available blood units. Where, this system eliminated the need for human intervention in managing blood units, in addition to offering the ability to easily develop the system to deal with new urgent requirements, which need new methods of managing blood units; as is happening today with the COVID-19 epidemic. This system increases the performance, transparency, reliability, and accuracy of blood unit management operations while reducing the required cost and effort.</span>

Blood Unit Segments Accurately Represent the Biophysical Properties of Red Blood Cells in Blood Bags but Not Hemolysis

BACKGROUND: The biophysical properties of red blood cells (RBCs) provide potential biomarkers for the quality of donated blood. Blood unit segments provide a simple and non-destructive way to sample RBCs in clinical studies of transfusion efficacy, but it is not known whether RBCs sampled from segments accurately represent the biophysical properties of RBCs in blood bags. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: RBCs were sampled from blood bags and segments every two weeks during 8 weeks of storage at 4 degrees C. RBC deformability was measured by deformability-based sorting using the microfluidic ratchet device in order to derive a rigidity score. Standard hematological parameters, including mean corpuscular volume (MCV), red cell distribution width (RDW), mean cell hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), and hemolysis were measured at the same time points. RESULTS: Deformability of RBCs stored in blood bags was retained over 4 weeks storage but a progressive loss of deformability was observed at weeks 6 and 8. This trend was mirrored in blood unit segments with a strong correlation to the blood bag data. Strong correlations were also observed between blood bag and segment for MCV, MCHC and MCH, but not for hemolysis. CONCLUSION: RBCs sampled from blood unit segments accurately represents the biophysical properties of RBCs in blood bags, but not hemolysis. Blood unit segments provide a simple and non-destructive sample for measuring RBC biophysical properties in clinical studies.

Redesign of a Transfusion Issue Form Using Human Factors Science

Blood transfusions are common procedures but are high risk for patient safety. Verification of the correct blood unit for the patient, assessments of the patient for symptoms of transfusion reactions, and quick responses to suspected reactions are the main interventions to ensure this process are safe. Each of these steps is aided by the transfusion issue form. We identified opportunities to use human factors principles to redesign and evaluate the form. We provide a discussion of the specific design changes and methods to facilitate use in other contexts.

Optimization of the criteria for cord blood unit selection for transplantation in recipients of the different age groups: current view and prospects in Ukraine

Umbilical cord blood has been widely used to treat both malignant and non-malignant hematological diseases for over 30 years. During this time, more than 40,000 successful hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantations of umbilical cord blood have been performed. However, today in Ukraine there is no public umbilical cord blood bank established for unrelated HSC transplantation to patients with oncohematological disorders (both children and adults). In this regard, the HSC units must be purchased abroad or the patients are sent to foreign clinics for high-cost treatment. The organization of a public umbilical cord blood bank in Ukraine would help in a short time to meet the needs of patients with oncohematological disorders for donor HSCs for unrelated transplantation and save significant funds for the treatment of patients abroad. According to the experience of the world's leading oncohematological centers, when it is impossible to find either a related or haploidentical donor or in all available registries – a unrelated transplant, the search continues in the registers of public cord blood banks and an umbilical cord blood unit that matches the criteria is usually found. The optimal choice of umbilical cord blood unit is crucial to maximize the likelihood of successful transplant engraftment and recipient survival after the transplantation, so the criteria for cord blood unit selection for unrelated transplantation are a bit broader than those used when matching donor-recipient pairs. The review presents the main criteria for cord blood unit selection according to the assessment of its quality, cell dose, HLA matching for unrelated transplantation to recipients of different age groups in accordance with international guidelines developed by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), USA Center for International Blood and Brain Transplantation Research (CIBMTR), in collaboration with the NMDP Council Advisory Group, as well as in accordance with the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT) and the Seventh Edition of the NetCord-FACT International Standards for Cord Blood Collection, Banking, and Release for Administration.

Evaluation of Quality of whole Blood and some of Blood Preparations by Buffy Coat Method at the Vietnam National Children’s Hospital

Objectives: Study on blood quality and some blood products using by Buffy coat method at Blood Transfusion Department - National Children’s Hospital in 2018. Subjects and Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study, 210 units of total blood with a volume of 250ml received from humanitarian blood donations in 2018, using by Buffy coat method to create preparations Blood products. Result: Quality of blood unit The total blood unit of 250 ml volume has a volume of 246 ± 11 ml; Hemoglobin 29,4 ± 5,2g / unit. 250 ml red blood cell with a volume of 163 ± 11 ml; Hemoglobin: 32 ± 4.9 g / unit. Number of platelets type TC 40: 47.06 ± 12.16; Residual leukocytes: 0.01. Conclusion: Successfully applying the buffy coat method in the production of blood preparations at the National Children’s Hospital.