Evaluation of blood donor deferrals in a government teaching hospital

Background: Blood transfusion is a life-saving intervention. Blood should be accepted from non-remunerated and healthy donors. Proper donor screening procedure minimizes the risk of transfusion transmitted Infections and also wastage of blood and blood products and thus screening of donors is a prerequisite for blood donation. Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted in blood bank center in the Department of Pathology in a Government teaching hospital, Shivamogga from January 2022 to June 2022. All the voluntary and replacement donors were evaluated by the standard questionnaire and medical examination including demographic profile, anthropometry, blood group, vital signs and hemoglobin estimated by cyanmethemoglobin method were collected from the donation requisition forms and online deferred list. The data were represented in the form of percentage, descriptive statistics and analysed. Results: Out of 3,449 blood donors, 252 were deferred. The deferral rate was 7.31%. Among the ineligible donors, males 245 (97.22%) outnumbered females 7 (2.8%). 242 donors (96.03%) were temporarily rejected among which high blood pressure constituted to 23.02% followed by alcohol consumption (11.11%) whereas 10 donors (3.96%) were deferred permanently. 9 donors (3.57%) had low haemoglobin level. Conclusions: Temporary deferrals are more than permanent deferrals thus temporarily deferred donors should be instructed to return for blood donation after their period of deferral days to retain the pool of blood donors

Self-Ordered Titanium Dioxide Nanotube Arrays: Anodic Synthesis and Their Photo/Electro-Catalytic Applications

material

Comparative Diagnosis of Falciparum Malaria Infections by Microscopy, Two RDTs, and Nested PCR in the Three States of North-Western Nigeria

One of the most pronounced problems in controlling the morbidity and mortality caused by malaria is limited access to effective diagnosis. Microscopy remains the gold standard for malaria diagnosis, but it is labor intensive, requires significant skills and time. Thus, this study was conducted in search of any prompt, reliable, and good alternative of microscopy, when it is not available. A total of 540 patients in the three states of north-western Nigeria were prospectively enrolled to compare the performance of the Pf-HRP2 rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), Pf/PAN-pLDH RDTs, and nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) with gold standard expert microscopy by 2x2 contingency tables, using standard formulae. For P. falciparum diagnosis, the sensitivity (Sn) and specificity (Sp) of Pf-HRP2 RDTs was 82% and 95%, while the Sn and Sp of Pf/PAN-pLDH RDTs (line 1) was 75% and 99%. Both Sn and Sp of nPCR were excellent with 98% and 100% respectively. The sensitivities of RDTs in this study were not optimal for P. falciparum diagnosis. Although, nPCR can be a good alternative of microscopy but the cost, qualitative nature and urgency of obtaining results with suspected malaria limits its use in routine clinical practice. Thus, microscopy should remain the diagnostic test of choice for malaria in this region. Key word: falciparum malaria, microscopy, RDTs, nPCR, Nigeri

Chronic Arsenic Exposure Impairs Macrophage Functions in the Exposed Individuals

Introduction Owing to the established roles of human macrophages in immune defense, we investigated the effect of chronic arsenic exposure upon these major hematopoietic cells in 70 arsenic-exposed individuals with skin lesions and 64 unexposed individual