by Pamela L. Malvern, BSN, RN, CNN and Victoria Hall, BSN, RN Sickle cell disease is the most common indication when red cell exchange is carried out by Carter BloodCare clinical apheresis staff. The procedure can be elective for those sickle cell disease patients whose clinical circumstances are best managed by performing exchange every six to
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by William Crews, MD Cryoprecipitated Antihemophilic Factor is more commonly known as cryoprecipitate, or simply cryo. Cryoprecipitate can only be made from Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP), which has been removed from whole blood and frozen within eight hours of being collected. The FFP is slowly thawed between 1 and 6C. This results in a supernatant that
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by Laurie J. Sutor, MD, MBA, VP of Medical and Technical Services Irradiation of blood is done to prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in susceptible patients getting transfusion. Current practice in U.S. blood banks tends to use one of two types of dedicated blood component irradiators: the traditional cesium source irradiator which emits gamma rays, or
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Katherine Kay Blevens chooses to celebrate the purest joys in her life – husband, children and grandchildren, despite being diagnosed with sickle cell disease as a baby. When she was a teenager, she was told that she would not live past 21. The reason why sickle cell disease carries such a grim prognosis is because
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Carter BloodCare’s Cellular Therapy Laboratory has been entrusted to assist with the initial collection, cryopreservation, preparation for patient infusion and administration of stem cell products. This video takes a behind-the-scenes look at the process.
Save the date for the 2019 PASS blood bank exam review, previously known as Last Chance Review.
by William Crews, MD Red blood cell genotyping predicts the antigen phenotype of the red cell by analyzing the portion of DNA that codes for red cell proteins/antigens. Carter BloodCare has performed red cell genotype testing for 10 years. Initially we used this testing to phenotype blood donors to increase our “rare unit” inventory. Over
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by Laurie J Sutor, MD, MBA The 31st edition of AABB Standards for Blood Banks and Transfusion Services went into effect on April 1, 2018. There were several changes and additions of note, a few of which are of interest to hospital blood banks. Selected changes are highlighted below. Note that this article does not
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by Lesley Kresie, MD The number of patients requiring a kidney transplant continues to rise each year and the number of organ donors remains insufficient to meet the need. The growing list of patients waiting for an organ has led transplant programs to look at all possible donor options for their patients, such as living
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Carter BloodCare is honored to be a finalist for the D CEO’s 2018 Nonprofit and Corporate Citizenship Awards. There are many deserving finalists in the Organization of the Year category. D CEO and Communities Foundation of Texas are honoring professionals and organizations in the nonprofit world that make a positive impact on the community. They are also honoring
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