Blood Weekly articles from July 2000

Blood Weekly archives from July 2000

Trial Begins with New Liver Assist Device.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania have initiated a clinical study of a bio-artificial liver assist device that is intended to support patients with acute liver failure until human...

Union Urges Members to Give Blood During Convention.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- The Connecticut AFL-CIO has asked its 600 affiliated unions - representing about 264,000 workers - to resume participating in Red Cross blood drives. This comes after a nearly month-long strike by blood...

Family Educational Program Completed.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- Resource Communications, State College, Pennsylvania, recently completed three multi-media hemophilia educational programs for parents, children, and teenagers for Baxter Hyland Immuno Division. The...

Perioperative Blood Transfusion Increases Risk of Cancer Relapse.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- Perioperative blood transfusion during curative resection of hepatocellular carcinoma increases the risk of intrahepatic recurrence, according to a study from Japan. "This study retrospectively evaluated...

Senate Legislation Approved to Save Connecticut Facility.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- The U.S. Senate has endorsed legislation that could keep open the Hartford Hospital, Connecticut, organ bank that was to be shut down this summer. A unanimous U.S. Senate has approved legislation that...

State of Wisconsin Will Hold Hearings on Organ Procurement.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- A Wisconsin State Assembly committee will investigate irregularities in the University of Wisconsin (UW) Hospital's human organ procurement program after three employees resigned. Assembly Health Committee...

UNOS Considers Change in Transplant Policy.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- The United Network for Organ Sharing is considering changes in transplant policies for type O livers, but not for other organs. The current and proposed policies for livers, and the standing policies for...

Liver Transplant Patients Receive Preference for Pediatric Donor Livers.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- The Board of Directors of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), meeting in Richmond, Virginia, approved a policy to give liver transplant patients less than 18 years old preference over adult patients...

U.S. Government to Investigate Selling of Body Parts.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- The U.S. government says it plans to investigate America's tissue bank industry, focusing on what families are told about how body parts of loved ones will be used. Donna Shalala, secretary of the U.S. Health...

Scientists Attempt to Grow Human Teeth.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- Biological, self-regenerated teeth may soon replace dentures and dental implants, according to a leading dental researcher. Mary MacDougall, PhD, associate dean, Dental School, University of Texas Health...

Repeated Hemodialysis Results in Platelet Dysfunction.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- Abnormal platelet cytoskeletal assembly results in deficient tyrosine phosphorylation signaling in repeat hemodialysis patients, researchers in Spain report. "Uremic patients have a bleeding tendency...

Chemotherapy Plus Total Marrow Radiation is Promising Treatment.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- A myeloablative regimen consisting of chemotherapy followed by total marrow irradiation (TRI) and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) may be an effective method for treating patients with poor-risk...

Bone Marrow Produces Mature Liver Cells in Humans.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- Mature liver cells in humans are generated from bone marrow-derived stem cells, a Yale University-New York University team has discovered, paving the way for improved treatment of liver damage and disease. ...

Infants with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Can Still Recover Thymus Function.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- Bone marrow transplants - involving either human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-identical donors or haploidentical donors following T-cell depletion - can enable the thymus to provide immune function to infants with...

Early vs. Late Administration of Human Recombinant Erythropoietin Compared.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- The effects of early versus late administration of human recombinant erythropoietin on the transfusion requirements of premature infants was evaluated by researchers in Argentina. "The administration of...

Anti-CD40L Monoclonal Antibody Overcomes CD4-Mediated Graft Rejection.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- Treatment with anti-CD40L monoclonal antibody (MAb) prevents CD4 T-cell mediated resistance to allogeneic bone marrow engraftment. "We previously reported that costimulatory blockade can eliminate the need...

Scientists Successfully Grow Insulin-Secreting Cells.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- University of California at San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine scientists have successfully cultured human beta cells that grow indefinitely, and that could potentially serve as an unlimited source of...

Breakthroughs in Gene Therapy and Tissue Engineering Reported.(Brief Article)
July 6, 2000... 2000 JUL 6 - (NewsRx.com) -- The use of gene-transfer technology to repair salivary-gland tissue, allowing a pathway for saliva to flow, in patients undergoing radiation therapy for head and neck cancer, is possible in principle,...

Immediate Treatment with Anti-HIV Drugs Prevented Infection in Girl.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- According to a Brief Communication in the July 4 Annals of Internal Medicine, a young girl who received a transfusion containing HIV positive blood began treatment with three powerful antiretroviral drugs...

Sheep DNA Altered to Contain Specific Changes.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- Gene targeting has been successfully carried out in sheep, researchers announced in the June 29 issue of Nature. Two female lambs have been cloned from sheep DNA altered to contain specific changes. The...

Treatment with Cord Blood Lowers Risk of Complications.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- Use of blood from the umbilical cord reduces the incidence of a potentially life-threatening transplant complication, in the first study to directly compare such transplants with bone marrow transplants in...

Anti-Rejection Drug May Stimulate Hepatitis B Virus Re-Infection.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- Certain anti-rejection treatments following liver transplantation, most notably OKT3, can cause liver re-infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV), according to a report in Clinical Transplantation. R.A....

Link between Hepatitis C Virus and Proliferative Diseases Studied in France.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- A national study designed to investigate the association between hepatitis C virus infection and lymphoproliferative (LPD) diseases in patients in France was recently published in the American Journal of...

New Test for Presence of Nitric Oxide Could Improve Medical Knowledge.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the United States have developed a means to detect nitric oxide that could help improve scientists' understanding of this molecule's role in...

Childhood Cancer Survivors with Viral Hepatitis May Suffer Liver Disease Later.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- St. Jude Children's Research Hospital researchers recently reported in the journal Blood that survivors of childhood cancer and aplastic anemia who become infected with the hepatitis C virus may later be at...

Study Shows Infection, Fat Metabolism Important Contributors in Death.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- Unusual infections and lumps of fat called emboli that clog arteries in the lungs appear to be under-appreciated causes of acute chest syndrome in sickle cell disease patients. The syndrome, which is a...

Aprotinin Decreases Need for Allogeneic Blood During Surgery.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- Aprotinin reduces the need for allogenic blood during total hip replacement surgery, a study from Canada suggests. "Aprotinin, a hemostatic agent, regulates fibrinolysis, modulates the intrinsic...

Hemopoiesis Restored by Cytokine Gene Transfer to Bone Marrow.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- Cytokine gene transfer to bone marrow cells may help restore normal hemopoiesis after bone marrow transplantation, researchers in France suggest. "Recombinant cytokine therapy is widely used for...

HIV Infected Patients Have Successful Outcomes.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- HIV infected patients have successful renal allograft transplantation outcomes, according to a study presented at the Transplant 2000 conference. "National statistics are presented for patient survival...

Solvent/Detergent Virus Inactivated Plasma Can Cause Fibrinolysis.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- The use of solvent/detergent virus inactivated plasma (ESDEP) in liver transplantation can cause fibrinolysis. "To minimize the risk of transmission of lipid coated viruses (hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C...

Rejection Detected by Ultrasound-Guided Percutaneous Biopsy.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- Pancreas transplant rejection can be safely diagnosed with ultrasound-guided percutaneous biopsy, researchers report. "The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness and safety of...

Hepatitis C Infection Rate is Five Times Higher for U.S. Veterans.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- According to the Hepatitis C Coalition, the infection rate for U.S. veterans is five times that of the general public. It is estimated that 10% of the surviving Vietnam veterans are infected with hepatitis C....

Positive Hemolink Results Announced.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- Hemosol Inc. (HML), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, announced that Hemolink safely reduces transfusion of donor red blood cells (RBCs) in patients undergoing routine CABG surgery. These findings are based on...

U.K. National CJD Surveillance Unit Publishes Annual Report.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- The eighth annual report of the National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Unit, jointly funded by the U.K. Department of Health and the Scottish Executive, was published June 15, 2000. The report...

Amino Acid Supplements Improve Patients' Health.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- Amino acid supplements may provide a cost-effective and safe method for improving the nutritional intake of some dialysis patients who are unable to meet their daily protein requirements, a Johns Hopkins...

CJD Not Likely to be Transmitted by Blood Transfusion.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- There is no association between blood transfusion and development of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, according to research in the June 29 British Medical Journal. Researchers in Canada analyzed five...

Warfarin and Herbal Products Don't Always Mix.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- The increased popularity of alternative therapies brings with it a variety of safety concerns, including the potential for dangerous interactions with prescription medications. Patients undergoing...

Monoclonal Antibody Induces Transplantation Tolerance.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- Blockade of CD86 and CD40 with monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) has been reported to induce allograft tolerance in an animal model. "The generation of immunoregulatory T cells that block the B7...

Platelet Glycoprotein Has Antithrombotic Effect.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- A platelet glycoprotein Ib-blocking monoclonal antibody (MAb) Fab fragments had an antithrombotic effect in a baboon study. "Platelet adhesion in arterial blood flow is mainly supported by the platelet...

Drawing Blood from the Earlobe Less Painful Than the Thumb.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- Blood samples taken from the earlobe are less painful for patients than those taken from the thumb, suggests a study in the June 29 British Medical Journal. Simon D. Carley and colleagues from Hope...

FDA Approves Next Generation Recombinant Factor VII.
July 13, 2000... 2000 JUL 13 - (NewsRx.com) -- The Bayer Corporation announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Kogenate(R) FS Antihemophilic Factor (Recombinant), Formulated with Sucrose [rFVIII FS], a new formulation of recombinant...

Early Filtration of Blood Reduces Efficacy.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers in the United States report that early filtration of red blood cell (RBC) units for the reduction of white blood cells (WBC) reduces the efficacy of the filtration process. "The influence of...

Viral RNA Stable When Blood Sample Stored Below 25(degree)C.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- HIV-1 and hepatitis C virus (HCV) viral RNA is stable in whole blood and plasma specimens when stored in temperatures up to 25(degree)C, according to industry researchers. Research results were presented...

Poor Safety Practices in Pakistan Prompt Government Regulation of Blood Transfusion.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Results of a study indicating blood banking practices in Karachi, Pakistan, were below World Health Organization standards prompted the country's government to pass legislation regulating transfusion safety....

Hair and Urine Analysis Verifies Donor Claims Regarding Drug Use.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Using hair and urine analysis to verify blood donors' statements regarding history of drug use is an appropriate measure to protect transfusion recipients, researchers in Germany say. Part of the...

Viral Infections Declined in First-Time Blood Donors Between 1991 and 1996.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C virus infection declined in first-time blood donors during the period starting January 1991 through 1996, according to a report in the July 12 issue of The Journal of the...

High Rate of GB Virus Type C/HGV in Low-Risk Blood Donors May be Due to Vertical Transmission.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers in France suggest that the high rate of GB virus type C/hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV) in low risk blood donors may be due to the high rate of transmission of the virus from mother to infant. ...

Truncating Blood Curves Enhances Imaging and Therapy.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Truncation of blood curves enhances imaging and therapy with monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), according to a study published in Medical Physics. "Targeting of MAb to solid tumor sites is a function of the...

Drug Combination Reduces Occurrence of Kidney Transplant Rejection.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Despite the use of multidrug immunosuppressive regimens, acute rejections episodes are still an important clinical challenge after renal transplantation. These events arise in 20%-40% of patients, and are a...

Eyesight Restored with Bioengineered Cornea.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- In separate reports this month, two groups of scientists announce they have restored eyesight to patients with previously untreatable corneal damage, using novel tissue bioengineering techniques. One...

Approach Developed for Cultivating Islets for Transplantation.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers at the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation's (JDF) Center for Islet Transplantation at Harvard Medical School have developed a new avenue for beta cell replacement therapy by cultivating human islets in...

HIV RNA in Sample Tubes Affected More by Temperature than Time.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Temperature, rather than time, causes more fluctuations in HIV RNA levels in Vacutainer brand Plasma Preparation Tubes (PPT) collection tubes, a recent study showed. "PPT tubes were used to examine...

Combination Antiviral/Immunoglobulin Therapy Effective Prophylaxis in Post-Transplant Patients.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Combination antiviral and immunoglobulin therapy helps prevent cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease in CMV negative patients who are transplanted with CMV positive hearts, according to researchers in the United...

Cell Culture Bags Facilitate Stem Cell and T Lymphocyte Gene Transduction.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Nexell Therapeutics Inc. (NEXL), Irvine, California, announced that investigators at a growing number of major U.S. laboratories are using the company's cell culture bags in research protocols designed to...

Ganciclovir Alone as Effective as Combination Therapy in Preventing Cytomegalovirus Infection.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Ganciclovir (GCV) given alone is as effective as combination therapy incorporating acyclovir (ACV) with cytomegalovirus (CMV) immunoglobulin (CMVIg) in preventing CMV infection in heart transplant recipients,...

Antibody Therapy/Sublethal Myeloablative Conditioning Induces Allograft Tolerance.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Anti-CD154 monoclonal antibody (MAb) therapy combined with sublethal myeloablative conditioning induces allograft tolerance in a murine model, according to a recent study. "Induction of allogeneic...

Orlistat Alters Absorption of Cyclosporine in Heart Transplant Patients.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers say that orlistat interferes with the absorption of cyclosporine when administered to obese heart transplant (Htx) recipients, despite spacing the doses of each drug by over two hours. In...

Orlistat Has Minimal Effects on Cyclosporine Levels After One Month in Heart Transplant Recipients.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Orlistat reduces cyclosporine (CyA) levels in heart transplant patients (Htx), according to a recent report, but patients' CyA levels returned to baseline after being on orlistat for one month and receiving a...

Amendment Filed to NDA for Atragen.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Aronex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARNX), The Woodlands, Texas, announced that the company has submitted an Amendment to its New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Atragen...

NIH Announces New Clinical Trials of Promising Transplant Therapy for Diabetes.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Ten research centers will soon begin testing a promising technique for transplanting insulin-producing pancreas cells that may one day allow people with type 1 diabetes to stop their insulin shots. Known...

FDA Recalls SangCya Oral Solution, Generic Version of Cyclosporine.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on July 10 the nationwide recall of SangCya oral solution, a generic version of the anti-rejection drug cyclosporine (Neoral oral solution), because of clinical...

Pumpless Extracorporeal Lung Assist Reduces Blood Trauma.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Extracorporeal lung assist (ECLA) is used as a last resort to save patients with the severest form of respiratory failure-severe acute respiratory failure (ARDS). Whether ECLA is beneficial, however, has...

Enrollment in Phase III Study of Recombinant Human Activated Protein C Halted.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- Eli Lilly and Co. (LLY), Indianapolis, Indiana, announced that it is stopping enrollment in a Phase III clinical trial investigating the therapeutic potential of recombinant human activated protein C in the...

Argatroban Approved to Prevent or Treat Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- SmithKline Beecham (SBH), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Texas Biotechnology Corp. (TXB) announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of the anticoagulant argatroban for the prevention or...

Growing Good-Guy Blood Cells in Culture.
July 27, 2000... 2000 JUL 27 - (NewsRx.com) -- A laboratory method for growing white blood cells called macrophages may bolster studies aimed at combating pathogens that exploit the immune systems of animals and humans. Multiplying macrophages in...