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Removing 10% of a patient's blood before major liver surgery and giving it back afterwards reduced transfusions by half, according to a large clinical trial. Known as hypovolemic phlebotomy, this practice could save one in every 11 patients having this surgery from needing a transfusion. "Blood loss is a major concern in liver surgery. Taking out half a liter of blood right before major liver surgery is the best thing we've found so far for reducing blood loss and transfusions," said Dr. Guillaume Martel. "It works by lowering the blood pressure in the liver. It's safe, simple, inexpensive, and should...

In his latest set of slides of blood samples taken from both “vaccinated” and unvaccinated people, Dr. Philippe van Welbergen demonstrated that the graphene being injected into people is organising and growing into larger fibres and structures, gaining magnetic properties or an electrical charge and the fibres are showing indications of more complex structures with striations. He also demonstrated that “shards” of graphene are being transmitted from “vaccinated” to vaccine-free or unvaccinated people destroying their red blood cells and causing blood clots in the unvaccinated. Dr. Philippe van Welbergen (“Dr. Philippe”), Medical Director of Biomedical Clinics, was one of the...

The study, published today (Oct. 17) in the journal JAMA, found that men who received blood transfusions from previously pregnant female donors were 13 percent more likely to die during the study period, compared with men who received blood transfusions from male donors. In contrast, men who received blood transf usions from women who had never been pregnant were not at increased risk of death over the study period, compared with men who received transfusions from other men, the study found. And women who received blood from women either with or without a history of pregnancy were not at increased...

Brain plaques may have been seeded by contaminated hormone extracts from cadavers. Only a decade ago, the idea that Alzheimer’s disease might be transmissible between people would have been laughed off the stage. But scientists have since shown that tissues can transmit symptoms of the disease between animals — and new results imply that humans, at least in one unusual circumstance, may not be an exception. The findings, published in this issue of Nature, emerged during autopsy studies of the brains of eight people who had died of the rare but deadly Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD; Z. Jaunmuktane et al. Nature...

For 15 years, the American Red Cross has been under a federal court order to improve the way it collects and processes blood. Yet, despite $21 million in fines since 2003 and repeated promises to follow procedures intended to ensure the safety of the nation’s blood supply, it continues to fall short. The situation has proved so frustrating that in January the commissioner of food and drugs attended a Red Cross board meeting — a first for a commissioner — and warned members that they could face criminal charges for their continued failure to bring about compliance, according to three...

Close window Published online: 22 December 2006; | doi:10.1038/news061218-13 Prions removed from animal bloodFiltration technique could make transfusions safer, its inventors say.Michael Hopkin A US-led research team has developed a technique to filter potentially deadly prion proteins from blood. They suggest that the method should be used routinely in attempts to remove prions, which can cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), from blood products used for transfusions. The method could offer better protection than the current practice of removing white blood cells from donated blood, say the researchers, led by Robert Rohwer of the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Previous studies...

ATLANTA, Feb. 24 (Reuters) - Americans who receive blood platelet transfusions are probably at a higher risk of contracting potentially deadly bacterial infections than previously believed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report published Thursday. Doctors are often unaware of the threat, the agency reported, citing a survey of infectious-disease experts last year and a subsequent investigation into two transfusion-related deaths. Platelets are irregularly shaped, colorless bodies that are important for clotting. Unlike other blood products, they must be stored at room temperature, making them vulnerable hosts to bacteria found on human skin and in blood....