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Methemoglobinemia, an altered state of hemoglobin resulting in impaired oxygen delivery to the tissues can be congenital or following exposure/ingestion of various oxidant drugs or toxins. One of the earliest signs of methemoglobinemia is generalized cyanosis not improved on oxygen supplementation and presence of normal PO 2 on acid blood-gas analysis. Here, we report two cases of acquired methemoglobinemia following poisoning and our experience of managing them with automated therapeutic red cell exchange., Competing Interests: Compliance with Ethical StandardsAnil Khetarpal declares that he has no conflict of interest. Urvershi Kotwal declares that she has no conflict of interest.Informed consent was obtained from both the patients included in the study before the procedures were done.

Autologous platelet biomaterials represent a key source of cytokines and growth factors extensively used for clinical and surgical applications involving tissue regeneration; wound healing and tissue repair. In this communication we discuss the growth factors released by activated platelet rich plasma (PRP) and platelet rich fibrin (PRF) releasate. Our study highlights that significantly higher growth factors (TGF-ß1) are released by activated PRP as compared to releasate of PRF. The various growth factors released by both platelet products are significantly higher than the baseline concentration in the whole blood and have different bio-mechanism hence should be individualized as per the clinical indication.

Introduction: Platelet derived biomaterials represent a key source of cytokines and growth factors extensively used for tissue regeneration; wound healing and tissue repair. Our study was to quantify platelets and growth factors released by PRP when prepared at different centrifugal force (g) and time., Material and Methods: Our study was approved by the institutional ethical committee. One hundred millilitres of whole blood (WB) was collected in bag with CPDA as the anticoagulant(AC); (14 mL for 100 mL WB ratio). Nine aliquots of 10 mL each were made from the bag and set of three aliquots were made a group. PRP was prepared at varying centrifugal force (group A: -110 g, group B: -208 g & group C: -440 g) & time (1: -5 min, 2: -10 min & 3: -20 min). Contents of each PRP prepared were analysed. Commercial sandwich ELISA kits were used to quantify the concentrations of CD62P (Diaclone SAS; France), Platelet derived growth factors-AB (Qayee-Bio; China), transforming growth factor-β1 (DRG; Germany) and vascular endothelial growth factor (Boster Immuno Leader; USA) released in each PRP prepared., Results: Eight volunteers were enrolled in the study (24-30 years). The baseline blood counts of all the volunteers were comparable (p ≥ 0.05). Mean ± SD of platelet yield of all nine groups ranged from 17.2 ± 4.2% to 78.7 ± 5.7%. Each PRP was activated with calcified thromboplastin to quantify the growth factors released by them. Significantly higher (p < 0.05) transforming growth factor-β1 and vascular endothelial growth factor were released compared to the baseline., Conclusion: Our study highlights the variation in both force (g) and time results in changes at cellular level and growth factor concentrations., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aims: To evaluate the response rate of transfusion-transmissible infection (TTI)-reactive donors after notification of their abnormal test results for the year 2012., Materials and Methods: This study is an observational descriptive study performed in our department over a period of 1 year. We evaluated the response rate of TTI-reactive donors after notification of their abnormal test results over 1 year as per the existing strategy (three telephonic and two postal communications)., Results: During the study period, among the annual donation of 15,322 units, 464 blood donors were found to be seroreactive. Of these 464 seroreactive cases, 47 were HIV positive, 284 were reactive for Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), 49 were Hepatitis C (HCV) positive and 84 were VDRL reactive. The TTI-reactive donors (464) for various markers were contacted: 229 (49.4%) telephonically and the remaining 235 (50.6%) not contacted on phone were informed by post. Of the 229 contacted donors, the response rate was 98.2% as only 225 donors reported (221 on the first, three on second and one on the third call) for one to one counseling. The remaining four non-responders were - one HIV and three HBsAg reactive. The remaining 235 (50.6%) reactive donors did not respond to any communication., Conclusion: Donor notification and post-donation counseling are an essential aspect of the blood bank that entails provision of information on serological status, assess the impact of test results on the donor and finally referral for medical care. As in our data only 49.4% of the blood donors could be contacted successfully, incomplete demographic details was the major limiting factor in communicating with rest. Of the 229 contacted donors, the response rate was 98.2%. A large majority (94.75%) of the notified donors in our study contacted their health care provider when given clear instructions to do so. These results are encouraging because they indicate that a major element of the notification message is acted upon when it is worded clearly. The very high response rate of the contacted donors ensured their concern for knowing their test result status.