|
medpundit |
||
 |
 |
|
Friday, February 07, 2003Nine days after the American Red Cross quarantined thousands of units of blood, the organization provided no new information Thursday on the nature of the strange-looking white material in the bags. One theory gaining steam is that something -- perhaps medication taken by blood donors or an industrial compound introduced in blood collection or manufacturing -- is causing blood components to clot and is producing unexplained smaller white particles. "It could be a certain new medication that we've never seen in blood before, or maybe it's an unusual synthetic food additive," said Dr. Christopher D. Hillyer, director of the Department of Pathology and Transfusion Medicine at Emory University's School of Medicine. Here’s what they’ve found so far: • Small white matter, described as "dandruff" or "snowflakes." • Large white matter, described as "fatty," "waxy" or "gunk." • Tiny bubbles that appear to be oily. • Yellow-and-white oily slicks. Of the four types, some scientists have confirmed only the large white matter as biological. Emory's Hillyer, who is an associate medical director of the local Red Cross but who did the testing on his own, said the biggest of the globs are "clumped-up platelets," which occur naturally in blood. "Platelets and white blood cells are not unexpected in a bag prepared in this way, but clumps in this size and number are atypical," Hillyer said. His findings are similar to those of LifeSouth, a blood collection agency headquartered in Gainesville, Fla., which visually examined about 1,000 units of its own blood and quarantined 16 "suspicious" bags. However, Bill Gair, chief operating officer for LifeSouth, said they found nothing "alarming or hazardous" in those bags. The particles most likely are residual fats and platelets left in blood after plasma is separated from red blood cells by spinning blood bags in a centrifuge, Gair said. posted by Sydney on 2/07/2003 08:14:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
|
