Study: Adolescent female blood donors at risk for iron deficiency
Anew rapid test for earlier diagnosis of sepsis has been developed by Scotland’s University of Strathclyde researchers, which they say could save thousands of lives.
A microelectrode device analyses the patient’s blood, with results coming through in twoand-a-half minutes, BBC wrote.
Current diagnosis tests for sepsis can take up to 72 hours.
The researchers hope the lowcost test could come into everyday use in three to five years.
It is estimated that 52,000 people in the UK die every year from sepsis, which is a serious complication of an infection.
The body’s immune system starts to attack the body’s own organs and the condition can be fatal.
It is hard to diagnose and can initially look like flu, gastroenteritis or a chest infection.
Early diagnosis is key because every hour that you delay antibiotic treatment, the likelihood of death increases.
Diagnosis of sepsis is usually based on body temperature, heart rate, breathing rate, and often a blood test, which can take up to 72 hours.
The new test uses a device to detect if one of the protein biomarkers of sepsis, interleukin-6 (IL-6), is present in the blood.
Dr. Damion Corrigan, who helped develop the test, said IL-6 is one of the best markers of sepsis.
“At the moment, the 72-hour blood test is a very labor-intensive process — but the type of test we envisage could be at the bedside and involve doctors or nurses being able to monitor levels of sepsis biomarkers for themselves.”
He said the test would work well in GP surgeries and in A&E to quickly rule sepsis in or out.
“It’s not just saving lives, a lot of people who survive sepsis suffer life-changing effects, including limb loss, kidney failure and post-traumatic stress disorder.”
The small device can be implanted and used on patients in intensive care and can detect when sepsis levels go up.
The project’s clinical adviser and coauthor, Dr. David Alcorn, from Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital, said the tiny electrode could detect sepsis and at the same time diagnose the type of infection and the recommended antibiotic.
“The implications for this are massive, and the ability to give the right antibiotic at the right time to the right patient is extraordinary.
“I can definitely see this having a clear use in hospitals, not only in this country, but all round the world.”
The researchers have applied for grant funding to develop a prototype device and hope to get commercial interest in taking it forward.
Ryan Sutherland, from Clackmannanshire, ended up in a Female adolescent blood donors are more likely to have low iron stores and iron deficiency anemia than adult female blood donors and nondonors, which could have significant negative consequences on their developing brains, a new study led by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests. Based on these findings, the authors propose a variety of measures that could help this vulnerable population.
Each year, an estimated 6.8 million people in the US donate blood, according to the American Red Cross, which coordinates blood drives across the country, eurekalert. org wrote, eurekalert.org wrote.
Adolescents are increasingly contributing to the donor pool due to blood drives at high schools. In 2015, adolescents ages 16-18 contributed approximately 1.5 million blood donations.
Although blood donation is largely a safe procedure, adolescents are at a higher risk for acute, adverse donation-related problems, such as injuries from fainting during donation, explained study leaders Eshan Patel, M.P.H., a biostatistician in the Department of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Aaron Tobian, M.D., PHD, professor of pathology, medicine, oncology and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of transfusion medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Additionally, they added, blood donation may also increase the risk of iron deficiency, as each whole blood donation removes about 200250 milligrams of iron from the blood donor. Because adolescents typically have lower blood volumes, when donating the same amount of blood, they have a relatively higher proportional loss of hemoglobin — the iron-containing protein in blood cells that transports oxygen — and consequently more iron during donation than adults. Females are even more at risk of iron deficiency than males due to blood loss during menstruation every month.
Numerous studies have shown that younger age, female sex and increased frequency of blood donation are all associated with lower serum ferritin levels (a surrogate for total body iron levels) in blood donor populations. However, noted Patel and Tobian, no study using nationally representative data has compared the prevalence of iron deficiency and associated anemia between blood donor and nondonor populations, specifically adolescents.
Toward this end, the researchers analyzed data from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a long-running study designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the US based on both physical exams and interviews conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From 1999 to 2010, this study included collections of blood samples as well as questions about blood donation history in the past 12 months.
The researchers found 9,647 female participants 16-49 years old who had provided both samples and blood donor history information. There were 2,419 adolescents ages 16-19 in this group.
They reported in the journal Transfusion that about 10.7 percent of the adolescents had donated blood within the past 12 months, compared with about 6.4 percent of the adults.
Mean serum ferritin levels were significantly lower among blood donors than among nondonors in both the adolescent (21.2 vs. 31.4 nanograms per milliliter) and the adult (26.2 vs. 43.7 nanograms per milliliter) populations.
The prevalence of iron deficiency anemia was 9.5 percent among adolescent donors and 7.9 percent among adult donors — both low numbers, but still significantly higher than that of nondonors in both age groups, which was 6.1 percent. Besides, 22.6 percent of adolescent donors and 18.3 percent of adult donors had absent iron stores.