The story of Vox Sanguinis

Vox Sanguinis was established in 1951 as a Dutch newsletter. It soon changed into an international journal. The main field of interest in the beginning was immunohaematology, but gradually transfusion medicine and related areas became more important. The article describes this evolution and gives background to various changes. The role of long‐serving editors‐in‐chief is particularly emphasised.     

Lack of evidence of HTLV-I antibodies in the Finnish population

5,287 serum samples from 2 different sources in Finland, people possibly at risk and healthy blood donors, were tested for the presence of HTLV-I antibodies. No positive cases were found. The result suggests that this virus is not endemic in Finland. 10 cases gave repeatedly a low positive value in the enzyme immune assay (EIA) test but were confirmed negative with other tests that included western blot, passive agglutination and immunofluorescence. Four of these samples originated from healthy blood donors, 6 from other categories. Several of them showed restricted reactivity in western blots. Five HIV-positive sera, discovered during the study from people with possible risk factors, were also tested for HTLV-I but showed no reactivity.     

The platelet amyloid precursor protein ratio as a diagnostic marker for Alzheimer’s disease in Thai patients

The platelet amyloid precursor protein (APP) ratio has recently been shown to be a promising diagnostic marker for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). To evaluate its usefulness in Thai patients, platelet APP was analyzed by immunoblotting. The APP ratio was calculated as the ratio of the combined band density of the 120-kD and 130-kD isoforms compared to that of the 110-kD isoform. The mean ages (and ranges) of 27 normal and 13 AD-affected subjects were 68.3 (60–84) and 79.3 (70–97) years, respectively. The Thai Mental State Examination (TMSE) scores demonstrated that the AD patients had significantly poorer cognitive functions than the normal subjects, with mean TMSE scores of 20.3 and 27.6 (maximum score of 30 points), respectively (p < 0.05). The platelet APP ratios of the AD patients were significantly lower than those of normal subjects: values (mean ± standard deviation) were 7.32 ± 1.29 and 9.13 ± 3.00, respectively (p < 0.05) for AD patients and normal subjects. However, the ranges of the APP ratios from both groups markedly overlapped, which precluded the establishment of a cutoff level to differentiate between the AD and normal subjects. In addition, no significant correlations were observed between the platelet APP ratio and the TMSE score or between the APP ratio and the serum cholesterol in this study, in contrast to previous reports.     

Cephalic index correlates poorly with intracranial volume in non-syndromic scaphocephalic patients

Objectives

This study aims to compare pre- and postoperative cephalic indexes (CI) with corresponding segmented intracranial volumes (SIV) obtained from volumetric CT in scaphocephalic patients.

Methods

Twenty-four patients (17 boys) who had undergone cranial vault remodeling due to scaphocephaly were compared from 3D-CT imaging datasets. The mean age of the patients at preoperative CT imaging was 5.5 months, and that at 1-year postoperative imaging, 21.5 months. The mean interval between preoperative CT imaging and surgery was 3.3 months. Pearson’s correlation was used to test the correlation of both pre- and postoperative CI with SIV. A paired t test was used to compare differences in the pre- and postoperative mean values of CI and SIV.

Results and discussion

CI correlated poorly with intracranial volume both preoperatively (r?=?0.274) and postoperatively (r?=?0.128). The mean preoperative CI was 65.92 (range 57.99–73.97), and the mean postoperative, CI 70.24 (range 60.23–75.57). The mean preoperative intracranial volume was 877.79 cm³ (range 638–1,256), and the 1-year postoperative volume, 1,249.04 cm³ (range 1,039–1,529). The mean values of both CI and SIV increased significantly after surgery. In one patient, the CI in postoperative measurements was smaller, whereas in all patients, the postoperative SIV was larger than the preoperative intracranial volume. The mean percentage increase in CI was 6.6 %, whereas the mean increase in SIV was 43.1 %.

Conclusion

Cephalic index correlates poorly with intracranial volume in non-syndromic scaphocephalic patients. For some patients, surgery and growth resulted in only subtle or no change in CI despite a notable increase in intracranial volume.     

Post-transfusion hepatitis.

Prospective international studies have shown the incidence of post-transfusion hepatitis in the 1980s to vary between 2% and 31%. Rare cases of hepatitis B continue to occur despite donor screening for the hepatitis B surface antigen, but most are of the non-A, non-B type. Non-A, non-B hepatitis is typically mild and often subclinical in the acute phase but has a tendency to become chronic in about half the affected subjects. The recently characterised hepatitis C virus has been shown to cause most, if not all, transfusion associated non-A, non-B hepatitis. Hepatitis C seropositivity seems to be associated with viraemia and infectivity among blood donors, and donor screening for these antibodies has now been instituted in many countries. New assays now being developed are improving the sensitivity and specificity of this screening, which is estimated to prevent most cases perhaps 70 to 80% of post-transfusion hepatitis.     

Post-transfusion hepatitis after open-heart surgery in Finland—a prospective study

Summary. A countrywide prospective study on open-heart surgery patients was performed between 1987 and 1989 to determine the prevalence and nature of post-transfusion hepatitis in Finland. Altogether 685 coronary by-pass operation patients, who received on average 12·3 units of blood products, were postoperatively followed for 6 months. Ten blood samples were drawn from each patient. Hepatitis was diagnosed when the alanine aminotransferase values exceeded the upper normal value 2·5 times in one sample and twice in another, and non-viral causes could reasonably be excluded. Eleven hepatitis cases (1·6%) were recorded with a mean incubation period of 8·4 weeks; all represented the non-A, non-B type. The majority had mild symptoms or were asymptomatic but two became icteric. Six patients (55%) had abnormal alanine aminotransferase values for at least 6 months, which indicates possible chronicity. These 685 open-heart surgery patients received a total of 8,436 units of blood products; thus the rate of NANBH cases per 1000 units was as low as 1·3. This is less than recently reported in six other prospective studies.