Selecting Research Topic

[dandelion]

Hi Everybody,

I would like to do an independent research on Transfusion medicine/immunohematology. Anybody has good research topic that be done howlely in the blood bank? something achievable and original?

A few ideas came across my mind but some of them has been researched and some has no significants. My first idea was about the effects of irration on old red blood cell units (they are more subceptibe to deformities), too bad I just found an article about this on MEDLINE.

I am dried on Ideas! I need help:cries: May I brorrow your helping hands?

[Mabel Adams]

I'd like to see some research on some of our old assumptions that were probably never tested. How long is a serum or plasma sample really stable for antibody testing? At room temp? At 4 degrees? What variables affect this? Is freezing really better for them? I just had a titer specimen get left at room temp for 2 days accidentally. I needed to repeat it just to make sure the new tech did it right. I got exactly the same results on both the old and new samples as she got on them both when they had been refrigerated for a couple of days.

Another of my pet ideas is to determine what the risks are of transfusing a unit of thawed FFP that has been out of the fridge for over half an hour. There seems to be some data about the effects of letting red cells hang around too long at room temp or be returned to refrigeration, but I wonder if anyone ever tested plasma. Do the factors deteriorate sufficiently for us to care? What is the increased risk of bacterial contamination? As long as it is a closed system, why is it that different from platelets in this regard? The bacterial contamination one would be hard to test since contamination is so rare. I don't think you could mimick real life by spiking units with bacteria. The only way I can see to increase your data points is to split plasma units into many small ones and monitor each for bacteria.

When we wash a cell suspension or cell button, why do we actually care if there are cells down the side of the tube? Was that just something that made the original workers feel neater? Do the cells actually get "cleaner" if all the cells make it to the bottom of the tube. ( I am after a shorter wash time than 60 seconds here.)

Did anyone ever test that it has no effect on any antibody specificity if we stick a wooden applicator stick in and fish out some fibrin?

Thanks for listening.

[dandelion]

Mabel,

Thanks for the quick reponse. I found a research on PUBMED (Coagulant stability and sterility of thawed S/D-treated plasma), looks like the topic about the stability of factors at roomtemp has been researched.

this is the link : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=15569070

I really appreciate your ideas.

[Mary]

I thought SD Plasma was off of the market.

[Mabel Adams]

I only read the abstract and it seems to refer to refrigerated storage, not room temp. Should I quit being lazy and read the whole article? Also, did they correlate the results with regular (not SD plasma)?

[dandelion]

MAbel,

You are right, I apologized for the confusion.