Revisiting Zika virus screening for donated blood In 2015, the Zika virus (ZIKV) rapidly spread to the Americas and other countries, and four possible transfusion-transmission cases were… May 10, 2018
Secondary Bacterial Culture for Platelets Reduces Transfusion Risk and Complies with FDA Draft Guidance for Platelet Safety Platelets are most susceptible to bacterial contamination due to their storage conditions. In order to decrease the risk of bacterial… April 4, 2018
Cost Effectiveness of Platelets Treated with Pathogen Reduction Compared to Secondary Testing In March of 2016 the FDA introduced draft guidelines recommending additional precautions to prevent bacterial contamination in platelets. Since both… October 4, 2017
High-Throughput Sequencing Used To Identify Pathogens in Donated Blood Ensuring a safe blood supply requires multiple strategies and is continually evolving with new, emerging pathogens. Researchers in Switzerland recently… May 24, 2017
Zika-Positive Blood Donations Can Be Inactivated Using Pathogen Inactivation Technologies Emerging infections, such as the Zika virus (ZIKV), continue to surface due to global travel, migration, and the spread of… February 15, 2017
Transfusion Testing Strategies for Multiple Myeloma Patients Undergoing Anti-CD38 Therapy Anti-CD38 therapies such as daratumumab have increased survival time for patients with multiple myeloma. This novel therapy, however, interferes with… February 10, 2017
Laboratory Testing is Suggested Before Intravenous Immunoglobulin is Given to Neonates Although intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) use is documented to treat a wide range of severe disorders in adults, IVIG use in… November 9, 2016
Massive Transfusion Protocols Vary Among U.S. Hospitals Over the past several years, clinical studies have shown that blood transfused early and quickly can reduce mortality in severe… October 19, 2016
Dithiothreitol (DTT)-based Method Validated for Blood Compatibility Testing in Patients Taking Daratumumab Daratumumab (DARA), an immunoglobulin that targets CD38 on myeloma cells, was recently approved by the U.S. FDA. DARA, however, also… September 14, 2016
Mandatory Blood Screening to Prevent Transfusion-Transmission of Zika Virus Two platelet transfusion recipients acquired the Zika virus from their transfusions, as recently reported in The New England Journal of… August 29, 2016
Quality Control and Regulatory