American Journal of Blood Research

BACKGROUND: Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is an extremely serious and potentially fatal condition that can develop in patients taking heparin-based medications, such as unfractionated heparin (UFH) or low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH). The incidence and risk factors for HIT in critically ill patients, however, are not well defined. METHODS: We retrospectively collected data on HIT test results, route of heparin administration, age, sex, heparin type (UFH or LMWH), and date of illness from patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and regular nursing floor (non-ICU) at our hospital between January 2011 and December 2014...

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major cause of death worldwide. Although there are many variables that contribute to the development of this disease, it is predominantly the activity of platelets that provides the mechanisms by which this disease prevails. While there are numerous platelet receptors expressed on the surface of platelets, it is largely the consensus that there are 10 main platelet receptors that contribute to a majority of platelet function. Understanding these key platelet receptors is vitally important for patients suffering from myocardial infarction, CVD, and many other diseases that arise due to overactivation or mutations of these receptors...

BACKGROUND: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common inherited blood disorder, affecting primarily Black and Hispanic individuals. In 2016, 30-day readmissions incurred 95,445 extra days of hospitalization, $152 million in total hospitalization costs, and $609 million in total hospitalization charges. OBJECTIVES: 1) To estimate hospital readmissions within 30 days among patients with SCD in the State of California. 2) Identify the factors associated with readmission within 30 days for SCD patients in California...

UNLABELLED: Factor V Leiden is an inheritable pro-thrombotic genetic condition caused by a point mutation at the 506th codon, resulting in activated protein C resistance. APC resistance has been shown to contribute to the development of venous thrombosis. However, the role of FVL in AMI has yet to be well defined in the current literature. To assess whether a mutation carrier is more apt to develop an AMI, we conducted a retrospective observational analysis of two populations aged 18-40 and 18 through end of life...

INTRODUCTION: Febrile neutropenia is a serious complication of cancer chemotherapy that can result in delays in treatment. This study evaluates the efficacy of A. ampeloprasum L. at neutrophil recovery time in children with chemotherapy-associated febrile neutropenia. METHODS: This single-center, parallel-group, double-blind, randomized clinical trial was conducted at an oncology hospital. Patients selected among childhood cancers with febrile neutropenia. Overall, 97 febrile neutropenic children were enrolled...

Central nervous system (CNS) involvement in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is an extremely rare presentation with dismal outcomes according to reported literature. An 8-year-old girl presented to us with complaints of on-off fever, right cervical swelling and bilateral ptosis. Positron emission tomography (PET) showed intracranial extra-axial soft tissue masses in right infero-lateral temporal lobe, sella and bilateral parasellar region along with cervical, mediastinal, axillary, abdominal and inguino-pelvic nodes, liver lesions and extensive marrow lesions involving the axial and appendicular skeleton...

BACKGROUND: Transfusion of granulocytes obtained by apheresis is beneficial in febrile neutropenia (FN) but expensive and time-consuming. Buffy-coat-derived granulocytes could be an alternative. We studied the efficacy and safety of the administration of irradiated buffy-coat-derived granulocytes along with the standard of care in pediatric high-risk (HR) FN. METHODS: Sixty children ≤18 years with malignancy and chemotherapy-induced HR FN were randomized to either the granulocyte transfusion (GT) arm which received irradiated buffy-coat derived granulocyte transfusion along with the standard treatment or the standard treatment (ST) arm...

OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence of coagulopathy in postoperative neurosurgical patients and correlate it with the outcome. MATERIALS AND METHOD: This longitudinal study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in the Department of Pathology and Neurosurgery. Ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Ethical Committee - Human Research. Seventy-two (72) participants were recruited within 48 hours of surgery after obtaining consent. Complete clinical and surgical details were recorded...

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) infection has spread globally and caused a substantial amount of mortality and morbidity. Early detection of severe infections will improve care and reduce deaths. The use of hematological parameters in predicting COVID-19 disease severity, patient outcomes, and early risk stratification is limited. Therefore, the study was aimed at determining hematological parameters and their predictive value for assessing disease severity in laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients in Northwest Ethiopia...

Hematological disorders are common medical ailments constituting an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, which may be managed efficiently using different prophetic medicine remedies as adjuvants to current therapeutics. Prophetic medicine includes the body of knowledge about medicine that has been derived from the deeds, customs (sunnah), ahadith (sayings), actions, and agreements of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. This review article aims at exploring the magnitude of therapeutic benefits of prophetic medicine remedies as adjuvant treatments to many different types of hematological disorders...

Cold agglutinin disease (CAD) is a subgroup of autoimmune hemolytic anemia caused by monoclonal cold agglutinins produced by clonally expanded B lymphocytes. In primary CAD, lymphoproliferative bone marrow disorder is noted, while as one of the secondary cold agglutinin syndromes (CAS), the initial manifestation of CAD is followed by development of lymphoma. Here, we report a case of low-grade B cell lymphoma developed 3 months after an initial CAD diagnosis. The patient had an extremely high serum cold agglutinin titer (1:16,384) and slightly elevated serum IgM (452 mg/dL; reference, 31-200) with positive monoclonal IgM-kappa chain...

The underlying mechanisms and clinical significance of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) urothelial cancer associated 1 (UCA1) is largely unknown in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We aimed to study the expression of lncRNA UCA1, and its biological and clinical relevance in AML. Expression of lncRNA UCA1 was quantified in peripheral blood (PB) samples of children with de novo AML (n=69), post-induction, after achieving complete remission (CR) (n=8), and in patients who had relapsed (n=10). Additionally, two external cohorts were analysed i...

The relation between the severity of COVID-19 and coexisting undiagnosed underlying thrombophilic conditions is not yet established. It may be possible that undiagnosed thrombophilia exaggerates an already pro-thrombotic state in COVID-19 patients and may be responsible for severe disease in absence of any known co-morbidity. The aim was to analyze the association of underlying thrombophilia with the severity of COVID-19 infection in post-COVID patients after a minimum of 6 weeks of recovery and to compare thrombophilia profile in severe versus non-severe COVID-19 patients...

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is one of the most inherited hematologic diseases affecting humans. Clinically, there is a progressive multiorgan failure and increased mortality in severe cases. The highest prevalence is in West Africa, India, the Mediterranean region, and Middle East countries. Hydroxyurea was the primary drug available for SCD and remains first-line therapy for patients with SCD. Three additional drug therapies, L-glutamine, Voxelotor, and Crizanlizumab, have been approved as adjunctive agents...

In comparison to the general population, patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) are at a higher risk of developing secondary malignancies. Several factors may contribute to pathogenesis, including direct effects of chemotherapy and radiation as well as the reduction of immune surveillance. Factors influencing the increased risk include the increasing age of CLL patients, chronic antigenic stimulation, and immune impairment related to CLL or chemotherapy. Compared to patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that developed from de novo, therapy-related AML (t-AML) has had a poorer outcome...

BACKGROUND: Limited literature was available on the pattern and determinants of mortality among inborn neonates in comparison to the out born ones. The study's goal was to investigate the patterns and risk factors for mortality among hospitalised, on-ventilator inborn and out born neonates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was an unmatched, case-control, pilot study conducted between January and December 2020 using information retrieved from the medical records of patients attending the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a tertiary healthcare facility, namely Narayan Medical College & Hospital, situated in eastern India...

Bone marrow (BM) is one of the rare but important site of metastasis of solid tumors. The key steps of metastasis include invasion, intravasation, circulation, extravasation, and colonization. Tumor cells may express some adhesion molecules that promote the transmigration to the marrow space and link them to the marrow stroma with subsequent engraftment. It is important to detect the bone marrow metastasis for initial clinical staging, therapeutic selection, prognostic risk stratification, assessment of response to therapy and predicting relapse...

PURPOSE: Additional knowledge on the epidemiology and recipients of blood transfusions will help health-care managers to estimate the future needs. The study was performed to define the blood transfusion rate based on gender, sex, and clinical features of patients receiving blood products in all hospitals of the North Khorasan province of Iran. METHODS: Data on blood transfusion implementation were extracted from blood bank documents. The data for all patients who received at least one blood product were collected from March 2018 to March 2019...

BACKGROUND: Acute myeloid leukemia with normal cytogenetics (CN-AML) is the largest group of AML patients with very heterogenous patient outcomes. The revised World Health Organization classification of the hematolymphoid tumours, 2022, has incorporated AML with Nucleophosphmin1 ( NPM1 ) and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein-alpha ( CEBPA ) mutations as distinct entities. Despite the existing evidence of the prognostic relevance of FMS-like tyrosine kinase-3 internal tandem duplication ( FLT3-ITD ) in AML, it has not been included in the revised classification...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogenous and challenging hematological malignancy with suboptimal outcomes. The implications of advanced technologies in the genetic characterization of AML have enhanced the understanding of individualized patient risk, which has also led to the development of new therapeutic strategies. A comprehensive study of novel mutations is essential to moderate the complicacies in patient management and achieve optimal outcomes in AML. In this review, we summarized the clinical relevance of important novel mutations, including TET2, ETV6, SATB1, EZH2, PTPN11, and U2AF1 , which impact the prognosis of AML...