Iranian Journal of Blood and Cancer
Volume:3 Issue: 2, Summer 2011

Intraventricular hemorrhage is the most common intracranial hemorrhage in premature infants. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between intraventricular hemorrhage and blood leukocyte count. This was a cross-sectional simple sampling study conducted from the beginning of 2006 to 2010 in Ali-Asghar Children’s Hospital. Inclusion criteria were birth weight less than 1500 grams, and at least one cranial ultrasound performed in the first 7 days. The CBC was taken one hour after first entering the NICU. WBC count greater than 25000 cell/ml was considered as leukocytosis and ANC greater than 15000 as neutrophilia. Two hundred neonates were included in the study. Intraventricular hemorrhage was reported in 59 patients (29.5%). There was significant correlation between Intraventricular hemorrhage and mechanical ventilation (P=0.003). Significant correlation was observed between gestational age and WBC count in the first and second days (P=0.001), and between birth weight and WBC count in the first and second days (P = 0.03). There was also a correlation between WBC count in the first and second days and the first minutes Apgar score (P = 0.03), and between the fifth minute Apgar score and the first day WBC count (P=0.005). Intraventricular hemorrhage incidence was associated with mechanical ventilation and pneumothorax, but no significant correlation was found with the total peripheral leukocyte count and neutrophil count during the first 72 hours after the birth. Further studies are needed to confirm the probable role of leukocytosis in the pathophysiology of intraventricular hemorrhage.

Regarding the significance of abdominal masses in children, we aimed to identify the pathology of masses according to the age and sex groups. We retrospectively reviewed pathological reports of 461 patients with abdominal mass that underwent resection or biopsy during the study period (25 years). One hundred and eighty six cases (40%) were non-neoplastic, many of which had renal originand 35 cases (7%) were hydatid cysts. Concerning the 271 neoplastic masses (58%), 96 cases (20%) were diagnosed as renal tumors (frequently Wilm’s tumor), 63 (13%) as neuroblastoma and 56 (12%) as abdominal lymphomas. Abdominal masses in children coming to a referral pediatric surgery center are more likely to be neoplastic. We also found that malignancies are rare in neonatal period in comparison to other age groups.

Transfusion of blood and its components/derivatives is a life saving medical intervention. However, this life saving procedure depends mainly on the availability of sufficient blood and its components in national health sector. Therefore the overall safety of transfusion medicines including the safety of blood and its available components and the appropriate use of these components would directly influence the health care services. To reach to an optimal blood safety, strategies should be defined and implemented in a timely manner. These strategies should include all steps of “vein to vein” chain from blood donor recruitment to appropriate use of blood and blood components. In order to reach such goals Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization has defined essential strategies for developing a suitable blood transfusion system in Iran which are briefly described.

Spleen is a major component of the reticuloendothelial system and functions as a filtering system for the encapsulated bacteria especially in children. Knowing the spectrum of conditions leading to splenectomy in any geographic area is important to decrease the number of unnessesary splenectomies. Here we report the causes of splenectomy in three major general referring hospitals in Shiraz, the capital of Fars province in southern Iran.