Blood Weekly articles from October 2000

Blood Weekly archives from October 2000

Coagulation Factor XI Found in Intravenous Immunoglobulin Preparations.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- The contamination of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) with coagulation factor XI may be responsible for thrombosis events in patients receiving IVIG therapy, say researchers in the United States. "A small...

Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin Safe for Pregnant Women.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Low-molecular-weight heparin does not cause complications in pregnancy or cause adverse birth outcomes, according to researchers in Denmark. "Pregnancy and puerperium are associated with an increased risk...

Cytokines Stimulate Graft-versus-Leukemia Effect Against Relapse.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- In a case of leukemic relapse after unrelated umbilical cord blood transplantation for hematopoietic reconstitution, researchers in the United States used interleukin (IL)-2 to stimulate an aggressive...

Queen's University Hemophilia A Canine Model Develops Neutralizing Antibodies.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- While the Queen's University hemophilia A canine model and the Chapel Hill hemophilia B model are similar in many respects, some of the Queen's University dogs develop neutralizing antibodies to canine factor...

Chapel Hill Strain of Hemophilia B Dogs Ideal Gene Therapy Model.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Because hemophilia B dogs from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill colony do not have any circulating Factor IX antigen in plasma, they are ideal candidates for testing the effectiveness of gene...

Company Recalls Blood Transfusion Bags.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Baxter Healthcare Corp. is warning blood banks and hospitals in the U.S. that some of its transfusion bags are defective and could contaminate blood. While neither Baxter Healthcare nor the U.S. Food and...

Red Cross Issues Appeal to Donors.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Citing a summer of worse-than-usual blood shortages, the American Red Cross has issued a national appeal for blood donors - the second such call since July 2000. The Red Cross, which supplies half the U.S....

Some Donors Turned Away Due to Staffing Shortages.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- While the American Red Cross blood supply is at its lowest point in 50 years in Wisconsin and parts of Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan, some donors are being turned away because of collection staff shortages, a...

Australia Backs Idea of Rejecting Blood Donors Who Ate British Beef.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- The Australian government backed plans by the country's chief medical officer to refuse blood donations from people who lived in Britain within a certain time period and ate beef there, in an attempt to...

Patented Human Tissue Technology Rights Licensed.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Regeneration Technologies Inc. (RTIX), Alachua, Florida, announced it has licensed exclusive rights to newly patented "segmentally demineralized bone" technology. This technology allows bone to be softened...

No Premature Aging Seen in Six-Generation Mice.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- The cells of cloned mice show no signs of premature aging despite being copied through six generations, researchers report. In fact, some cells showed signs of getting younger. The study, published in...

Compact Disk Technology May Offer New Option for Testing.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Research at Ohio State University, Columbus, is paving the way for doctors to conduct blood tests and other diagnostics using a compact disc (CD) and a CD player. One day, patients may be able to own a CD...

Novel Study Identifies Marker for Copper Status in Healthy Men and Women.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Results of a study conducted at the University of Ulster in North Ireland have shown that some blood markers can give a good indication of the effects of copper status as a result of copper supplementation. ...

Logging Companies Play Major Role in Emergence, Spread of New Diseases.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- A recent study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health that examined the factors causing humans to become infected by novel pathogens has found that the intersection of forest hunting and...

University to Supply Human Tissue for Research.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina, will supply human tissue left over from surgery to a private company that will sell it to researchers, an unusual deal that raised questions about a hospital's...

High-Dose Chemotherapy/Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation Effective.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- High-dose chemotherapy supported by autologous stem cell transplantation is a safe and effective therapy for HIV infected patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, suggest recent study results. "The advent of...

Therapeutic Levels of Factor IX and VIII Produced In Gene Therapy Models.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Researchers report that animals models of gene therapy for hemophilia A and B have been therapeutically successful. "Persistent therapeutic levels of human Factor IX (hFIX) and VIII (hFVIII) will...

Clinical Trial Results of Gene Therapy are Encouraging.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Data from pre-clinical and clinical trials of gene therapy for hemophilia B are encouraging. "A number of basic studies are underway that shed light on findings in an ongoing clinical trial of...

Adenovirus-Mediated Gene Transfer to Donor Kidneys Has Therapeutic Merit.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of donor organs may eventually abrogate or reduce the need for exogenous immunosuppressive agents, suggest researchers in Italy. "Local modulation of the immune response...

Treatment Results in Favorable Response.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Clinical study results showed that treatment with Cancidas (caspofungin acetate), an investigational medicine, resulted in a favorable response in 22 of 54 patients (41%) diagnosed with life-threatening...

Doctors in Asia Share One Liver Between Hong Kong and Taiwan Donor Recipients.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- It remains no secret that organs for transplantation are hard come by and that patients sometimes remain on active donor lists for long periods of time. This situation exists on an international level. In...

Piggyback Transplant Technique Benefits Patients More than Standard Method.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- In a study comparing standard technique orthotopic liver transplantation with the piggyback technique, the latter was found to have several advantages. Researchers at the University of Kentucky report...

Tiny Microchips Have Big Promise in Fighting Disease.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Treatment for life-threatening diseases and relief from disease-related pain may one day be supplied by microscopic chips that could be implanted in the body, according to researchers from Ohio State...

Researchers Take Steps to Growing Replacement Blood Vessels.
October 5, 2000... 2000 OCT 5 - (NewsRx.com) -- Heart attacks may be less deadly in the future, thanks to micro- and nanotechnology research just begun at Ohio State University. Researchers are investigating ways to re-grow tiny blood vessels to keep...

TT Virus Infections Highly Prevalent in Transfused Pediatric Patients.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- Pediatric patients in Japan who receive blood transfusions due to malignancies or other disorders requiring transfusions stand a relatively high risk for acquiring TT virus infection, according to a study in...

Ethylene Oxide Exposure Causes Hematological Changes in Hospital Workers.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- Long-term low level exposure to ethylene oxide causes hematological changes in health care workers, researchers in Israel report. "We conducted a cross-sectional study to determine whether occupational...

Early Treatment of Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia Beneficial.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- According to a study from the United States, early treatment of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) by allogeneic bone marrow transplantation results in higher cure rates. "We evaluated the outcome of...

Epoetin-Alpha in Elective Cardiac Surgery is Not Cost Effective.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- The use of epoetin-alpha to augment preoperative autologous blood donation for elective cardiac surgery is not cost-effective, a study in Canada determined. "The objective of this study was to assess the...

Education, Catheter Protection Result in Fewer Infections for Stem Cell Transplant Recipients.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- A program of patient and caregiver education, along with two simple mechanical steps, was shown to reduce the number of bloodstream infections (BSI) in stem cell transplant recipients. "BSI are common...

Neutropenia Puts Transplant Patients at Risk.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- Neutropenia puts bone marrow transplantation (BMT) and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) patients at increased risk of nosocomial infections (NI), according to a study from Germany. M....

Laparoscopic Nephrectomy May Positively Influence Donation Rates.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- Reduced complications from laparoscopic nephrectomy may help sway non-donors into changing their minds and donating a kidney to a relative, suggest researchers in the United States. "Although living...

Hi-Tech Future Blood Monitoring Device in the Works.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- Micronics announced that it has signed an agreement to collaborate with Honeywell (HON) in developing a leading-edge microminiaturized lab-on-a-chip-based blood cell monitoring device. The development...

Plasma Volume Expander Used in Surgery Helps Reduce Amount of Blood Used.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- BioTime, Inc. (BTX) announced that Hextend(R), the company's proprietary physiologically-balanced plasma volume expander currently in use in hundreds of hospitals throughout the U.S., could help alleviate...

American Red Cross Says Blood Supply Shows Signs of Recovery.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- The American Red Cross told Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-area hospitals on September 26, 2000, that it is no longer necessary to postpone surgeries for type O patients, but warns that additional blood donations...

Foundation Feuding with Drug Company.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- The National Hemophilia Foundation in the U.S. will no longer accept money from Bayer Corp. after protesting the company's decision to sell its new hemophilia drug directly to U.S. patients instead of using...

Moderate Increase in Organ Donation Seen in U.S.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- The number of organ donors has increased nearly 4% in the U.S. for the first six months of 2000 compared to 1999 according to data provided by organ donor programs to the U.S. Department of Health and Human...

U.S. Study Aims to Prevent Stroke in Children with Blood Disease.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, is among 20 U.S. sites participating in an $11 million study of optimizing stroke prevention in children with sickle cell anemia. Led by neurologist...

Successful Completion of Antibody Optimization Announced.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- MorphoSys AG, Munich, Germany, and GPC Biotech AG announced the accomplishment of the first milestone in the immunology part of their collaboration. The milestone marks the development of high affinity...

Antisense Enables Long-Term Survival of Transduced Immune Cells.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- Long-term survival of therapeutic gene transduced CD34(+) cells in peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) was realized in a study involving HIV-1 infected patients. D. Liu and colleagues from Enzo...

FDA Approves Arsenic Trioxide in Record Time for Cancer Drug Development Program.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Trisenox (arsenic trioxide) for the treatment of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) who have not responded to, or have relapsed following...

Improper Blood Port Cleaning Places Dialysis Patients at Risk for Hepatitis C.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- Staffers in the Department of Pathology at Shands Jacksonville Medical Center in Florida report that despite recent emphasis on the importance of cleaning medical equipment that may have been in contact with...

Hepatitis B DNA Quantification Panel Release Announced.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- AcroMetrix Corp., Berkeley, California, announced the release of their hepatitis B virus (HBV) nucleic acid panel for use in blood screening and medical diagnostic laboratories worldwide. As with their...

Pilot Study Shows Massage, Relaxation Reduce Pain.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- Thoughts of massage might conjure up images of an indulgence enjoyed by those fortunate enough to frequent a spa or by the athletic elite. But a little scientific scrutiny is showing it not only kneads...

Pig Cells Lead the Way to Making Artificial Blood Vessels.
October 19, 2000... 2000 OCT 19 - (NewsRx.com) -- Once only a dream, artificial blood vessels are on the way to becoming reality. But it is going to take another 10 to 20 years possibly, and overcoming several hurdles before patients reap the benefits,...