فصلنامه خون
سال نوزدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 75، بهار 1401)

Blood products are important to many patients. Due to excessive demand for blood, which causes blood loss and increases the cost of treatment and the workload of the blood bank, it is necessary to consider the demand and consumption rates of blood products.

In this descriptive study, blood request forms were examined for individuals over 18 years of age referred to Imam Sajjad Hospital in Ramsar from January 2019 to January 2020. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 25 and Chi-square Test. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, and mean) and blood transfusion indices including cross-matched to injected blood ratio (C/T), blood transfusion index (TI), and blood transfusion probability (T%) were calculated.

3111 blood request forms were reviewed. Out of 7640 units of requested blood, 5051 units (66.11%) were injected into patients. Among the hospital sectors, gynecology department with 58 units (1.1%) had the lowest frequency of consumption of packed RBCs. The overall C⁄T ratio was calculated to be 1.56. Overall TI was 1.22 and T٪was 65.82%.

 This study showed that the ratio of transfusion indices was appropriate for all departments of Imam Sajjad Hospital in Ramsar except for gynecology. Due to the high demand for blood compared to consumption, unnecessary requests can be significantly reduced by properly examining patients and applying the principles of blood ordering.

Risk is a combination of the likelihood of an incident occurring and the severity of the consequences if that incident were to occur. The aim of this research is to identify and evaluate the risk factors in the blood donation process in a fixed blood collection center of Saqez city by failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA).

It is a descriptive-applied study that was performed in a fixed blood collection center of Saqez in 2020. The researcher collected and analyzed the data using FMEA worksheets. Then the risk priority number is obtained by multiplying the three indicators of failure severity (S), the failure probability of occurrence (O), and the failure detection (D). Finally, the priority was based on the failures.

Finally, 30 sub-processes were identified, of which 20 sub-processes with acceptable risk and 10 sub-processes with unacceptable risk were identified. The highest identified risk is related to the donor not paying attention to safety points before and after blood donation with a priority risk number of 168 and the lowest is attributed to the shaker not alarmed when the blood donation process ends with a RPN of 48.

Many of the failures identified will be reduced or eliminated by training, providing up-to-date equipment, and changing procedures and working methods.

The HLA-G antigen is a non-classical HLA class-I with limited polymorphism. Several studies have indicated the role of a 14 bp Indel polymorphism rs371194629 in the 3'-UTR region of the HLA-G in acquisition of HTLV-1 infection. In this study, we investigated the correlation between the genotypes of this polymorphism and HTLV-1 infection in blood donors of Khorasan Razavi province.

In this analytical study, a total of 131 healthy individuals and 131 HTLV-1 positive patients were analyzed. After DNA extraction, the genotypes of the polymorphism were determined by PCR-SSP method. Statistical analysis was performed with chi-squared test using SPSS version 23 software.

The DI was the most frequent genotype in both groups (49.6% of controls and 40.3% of patients). The DD genotype was associated with increased risk of HTLV-1 infection (OR=1.89, 95% CI=1.14-3.11, p=0.03). There was no significant difference between the frequency of D and I alleles in both groups.

 Our findings confirm previous results about the significance of HLA-G polymorphisms in susceptibility to infectious diseases including HTLV-1. Further investigations could reveal the underlying mechanisms.

Rapid change, serious competition, and the need to increase productivity have made organizations need employees to go beyond their job responsibilities, which is called "Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB)". One of the effective factors in the development of these behaviors is individual factors. The present study was conducted to identify these factors in the headquarters of Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization.

This research has an applied approach that was conducted in two parts: qualitative and quantitative. In the qualitative section, 13 experts and specialists were selected by a completely purposeful method and thus the statistical population of the study was formed. MAXQDA-2020 software was used to analyze the data. In the quantitative part of the statistical population of the study, the staff of the central headquarters of IBTO consisted of 210 people who were sampled by simple random sampling method.

Regarding individual factors, the results showed that the personality (factor loading 0.94), job satisfaction (0.93), work conscience (0.87), organizational commitment (0.84), motivation (0.77), and communication skills (0.71) were effective in developing organizational citizenship behavior. The results of the first and second order confirmatory factor analysis of the individual factors model indicate the appropriateness of the measurement model of the relevant variables.

It is suggested that in order to develop OCB, managers of IBTO should pay attention to the factors identified in the research and hold training courses focusing on recognizing the status and importance of these behaviors to achieve the goals of the organization.

One of the dangers of blood transfusions is the mistakes that lead to the wrong blood transfusion to the patient. This study was performed to identify the types of errors that lead to incompatible transfusions to prevent their recurrence and increase recipients health.

This cross-sectional study was performed on complications of ABO incompatibility caused by transfusion in 2019 in Shiraz hospitals. Demographic characteristics of blood recipients (age, sex, diagnosis, history of transfusion, blood type), type of product received, blood type of product received, incompatible blood volume injected, symptoms and causes of ABO incompatibility were determined. Chi-square and t-test were used to analyze data.

A total of 9 complications of ABO incompatibility were reported; 7 cases (77.8%) were due to packed red blood cells, one case (11.1%) due to platelet injection and one (11.1%) due to plasma injection. Seven cases occurred in patients undergoing surgery, one case in neonates and one in thalassemia patients. In terms of clinical symptoms, only one patient developed chills. The rest of the patients had no symptoms. The most common error leading to inconsistency was the lack of accurate identification in 6 cases (66.7%) and in 2 cases (22.2%) sampling error and in one (11.1%) incorrect group writing.

It seems that in order to promote safe blood transfusion, it is important to investigate the occurrence of ABO incompatibilities in order to identify blood transfusion chain errors in order to identify the causes of errors and prevent the recurrence of these complications.

Preventive maintenance plays a crucial role in ensuring continuous operation and increasing the accuracy and safety of medical equipment. The existence of this system can significantly reduce the cost of the repair and replacement. In this study, the effectiveness of the maintenance of medical equipment of 7 blood centers was evaluated in Tehran, Karaj, Gilan, Mazandaran, Semnan, Shiraz and Yazd during the years 2016-2018.

In this cross-sectional study, the effectiveness of establishing maintenance management on 201 devices with a history of more than 5 years in 7 blood transfusion centers was evaluated. Performance status and effectiveness of periodic visits and training were done through a questionnaire and in person. Descriptive and inferential statistics, one-way analysis of variance, and Spearman correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. The results were statistically calculated using SPSS 16 software.

The results of this study showed that about 40% of the medical equipment of these centers do not have a regular evaluation and the operating conditions of the devices, periodic visits and user training were 87%, 64% and 43% in good scale, respectively. Analysis of variance also showed that the mean scores of equipment performance conditions, periodic visits, and user training were not statistically significant according to relevant international standards.

  Establishment of medical equipment maintenance management has led to continued performance, increased accuracy of results, access time, and useful life along with reduced breakdowns and the cost of repairs.

The plasma industry started during World War II with the need for Plasma Derived Medicinal Products (PDMP). About 30 major plasma products are now commercially available, the most important of which are albumin, coagulation factors and immunoglobulin. Demand for these products is still growing, and these products have become particularly important not only in the treatment of diseases but also in global trade. The article is a brief overview on the evolution of plasma industry over the past eighty years.

This review was done by searching for articles in Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus databases, based on aspects of the evolution of the plasma industry, and the cost of producing plasma derivatives, from the beginning of this industry, from 1940 to 2021. Additionally, private sector entry and cost and benefit of viral deactivation processes in plasma industry was selected.

The plasma industry has experienced tremendous progress over the years and faced many problems, and despite advances in biotechnology, this industry is a unique necessity in the health of human societies. The production of plasma-derived pharmaceutical products is a complex activity and involves several stages of operational units.

There are many challenges and opportunities in the future of plasma industry. It seems that the emergence of new pathogens, the need for new PDMPs, and the potential to create new consumer markets, will be a challenge for plasma industry in the future. But the increasing demand can provide a good opportunity to change strategies and optimize consumption. The development of recombinant methods provides a good alternative to these products. In addition, the potential of using surplus plasma for local production provides an opportunity for developing countries.

Clinical features of SARS-COV-2 virus include fever, headache, cough, sore throat, and shortness of breath, and in severe forms it leads to disseminated intravascular coagulation, septic shock, and ultimately death. Excessive secretion of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1 leads to cytokine storms in this disease. The emergence of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which occurs following a high mutation of the virus, increases its ability to escape the immune system and improve its transmission power. This process, in turn, can lead to ineffective vaccines against the virus. Due to the effect of the emerging viruses on the safety of blood and its products, in the first part of this article, the topic of virology, immune responses, and immunopathogenesis of this virus were discussed. The second part will discuss the viral-related issues of blood safety and its products.

In this review, keywords were searched in Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus databases and the sites of Nature, Science, Elsevier, Cell, BMJ, and Lancet journals, and finally 148 articles were used.

In this article, in addition to a brief review of SARS-CoV-2 and its new variants from a virological point of view, its immunology and immunopathogenesis are also discussed.

  Due to the widespread SARS-CoV-2 virus and its unprecedented nature in causing the disease, it is essential to address it. However, based on the genomic nature of the virus, the high probability of various mutations and the emergence of new variants, accurate and comprehensive information on the virus abilities to escape the immune system and its pathogenic mechanisms is not yet available. There are many contradictions in these topics. However, the latest available and reliable scientific materials at the time of the preparation of this article have been tried to be reviewed.