Blood utilization review has recently been used to minimize inappropriate transfusion, reduce post transfusion infections and improve the quality of transfusion practices. Ajou University Hospital is a 906 bed tertiary care teaching institution. Since March, 1995, the concurrent review of blood transfusion requests using institutional blood transfusion criteria has been initiated. To evaluate the effectiveness of the transfusion review, the units of blood components transfused per patient(total number of units of blood components transfused/total number of patients discharged) and inappropriate transfusion ratio of blood components(total number of units of blood components inappropriately transfused/total number of units of blood components transfused) were compared during the concurrent review for 9 months and pre-concurrent review for 9 months, respectively. The possible savings of blood components realized by the review were also extrapolated. The results were as follows : 1. The unit transfused per patient for pre-review and during review were 0.675 (9,080/ 13,422) and 0.654(12,123/18,546) for packed RBC(PRBC); 0.417 (5,602/ 13,422) and 0.296 (5,444/18,546) for fresh frozen plasma(FFP); 0.372(5,007/13,422) and 0.424(7,868/18,546) for platelet con-centrates(PC), respectively. 2. The inappropriate transfusion ratio of blood components for pre-review and during review were 0.039 and 0.009 for PRBC; 0.321 and 0.064 for FFP; 0.143 and 0.008 for PC, respectively. These differences were statistically significant(p=0.000). 3. The PRBC and FFP anticipated to have been saved by this review was 519 units and 2,992 units annually, respectively. 4. However, 2,621 units of PC were used additionaly during this review due to increased number of oncology patients and better hemostatic therapy practiced during the same period. In conclusion, the concurrent review of transfusion requests was very effective tool to educate residents in clinical departments the transfusion medicine and improve utilization of blood and its components.
Blood Platelets ; Blood Transfusion* ; Concurrent Review* ; Humans ; Income ; Tertiary Healthcare ; Transfusion Medicine ; Utilization Review

The results of ABO blood typing in 64-year-old patient with chronic renal and heart failure were positive with anti-B, delayed and weak positive with anti-A in the slide method for the cell typing, mixed-field agglutiniation by light microscopy in the tube method for the cell typing, and also was negative in anti-A, lectin and positive in anti-H, therefore blood typing of this patient was confirmed to A3B.
Blood Grouping and Crossmatching ; Heart Failure ; Humans ; Microscopy ; Middle Aged

BACKGROUND: There is no comprehensive report on the donor reaction rate among blood donors in South Korea. We attempted to analyze the patterns and rates of immediate blood donor reactions and the current status of the reporting system in our country. METHODS: Immediate donor reaction rate was defined as the number of donor reaction cases in 10,000 donations during or immediately after donation. We retrospectively analyzed the 4,835,499 donations collected in 2 yr (2008 and 2009) at the Korean Red Cross Blood Center. The data presented are the average data of the 2 yr. RESULTS: The overall donor reaction rate was 8.7. The rate for subcutaneous bleeding, vasovagal reaction, and nerve injury was 4.1, 4.0, and 0.1, respectively. For citrate reaction, which occurred among apheresis donations, the donor reaction rate was 0.4. The overall reaction rates among male and female donors were 6.0 and 16.2, respectively. The rates were highest in teenagers (12.0) and lowest in those in their forties (4.3). The most frequent reaction in male donors was subcutaneous bleeding (3.3); that in female donors was vasovagal reaction (8.9). CONCLUSIONS: The donor reaction rate of the study was lower than that of other countries or that of domestic prospective studies by a local blood center. These data suggested that the reporting system for blood donor reactions in Korean donors is not active, and that national standards and the continuing education of blood-collection personnel regarding donor reactions should be established to ensure reliable data collection.
Adolescent ; Blood Component Removal ; Blood Donors ; Citric Acid ; Data Collection ; Dietary Sucrose ; Education, Continuing ; Female ; Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Male ; Red Cross ; Republic of Korea ; Retrospective Studies ; Tissue Donors

No abstract available.
Classification* ; Dermatoglyphics* ; Yersinia*

BACKGROUND: Transfusion is a choice of treatment and should be used in order to maintain patients' lives and health. In order to supply safe blood, the quality improvements of hospital blood collection centers should be periodically monitored. To establish systematic surveillance of blood management system, we would like to suggest proper program. METHODS: Twenty-nine hospital small scale blood centers, collects less than 100 units of blood collection per year, were evaluated. Qualified were selected among blood bank specialists who were eligible to simultaneously perform inspections and consultations, and who had attended inspectors' workshop. RESULTS: Among twenty-five blood collection centers, four blood collection centers were closed prior to inspections. Among them, two blood collection centers were evaluated as inadequate. Among adequate centers, some questionnaires were evaluated as "not applicable" mainly for reasons pertaining to personnel and facilities, such as blood component preparation rooms and/or center administrators. CONCLUSION: A checklist for an inspection program should be reviewed continuously. Additionally, detailed guidelines for inspection should be standardized prior to commencing of subsequent year's inspection program. Finally, guidelines for inspection should be established for every questionnaire.
Blood Banks ; Checklist ; Quality Improvement ; Referral and Consultation ; Specialization ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: There is paucity of data on the use of blood and its products with regard to the diagnoses of recipients in Korea. The objective of this study is to report the characteristics of the recipients and the usage in relation to diagnoses among Koreans. METHODS: We assessed the blood usage of adult patients (18 years or older) in a tertiary teaching hospital during the past 2 years (1998-2000). The red blood cells (RBCs), fresh frozen plasmas (FFPs) and platelets (PLTs, platelet concentrates and apheresis platelets) were evaluated in relation to the characteristics of the recipients and the discharge diagnoses according to the International Classification of Diseases (10th Ed). Data were extracted from the hospital information system. RESULTS: Approximately twenty percent of the hospitalized patients were transfused. RBCs, FFPs and PLTs were transfused 18.9%, 4.8% and 3.2% of hospitalized patients, respectively. Fifty-six percent of 54,049 RBCs and 64.9% of 19,549 FFPs were transfused in the patients with nonhematological neoplasms, disorders of the digestive system, injury and poisoning. Sixty-two percent of 50,621 PLTs were transfused in the patients with hematological and non-hematological neoplasms and disorders of the digestive system. CONCLUSIONS: This survey showed the trends of the transfusion practice as different from those for Caucasians and the usage of FFPs and PLTs was restricted for some recipients. These results could help in predicting the blood needs and medical costs for a variety of patients.
Adult* ; Blood Component Removal ; Blood Platelets ; Diagnosis* ; Digestive System ; Erythrocytes ; Hospital Information Systems ; Hospitals, Teaching ; Humans ; International Classification of Diseases ; Korea ; Plasma ; Poisoning

In recent years pulmonary function teste have had a wide application in clinical pulmonary diseases. By combining a number of different pulmonary function tests, abnormality present in a particular pa tient can be defined. This narrows the list of possible diagnosis and allows to determine accurately the degree of impairment and assess the pesponse to therapy. To assess the pulmonary function in a patient and label as abnormal, it becomes important to define the range of expected values for a normal population. These normal'predicted values'vary according to sex and prowth, i.e., age, height, and weight, particularly in children. In addition, race and geography have been consistently shown to bc an important determinant of lung function. In order to obtain normal perdicted values of pulmonary function tests in Korean school-aged children, we performed spirometry-based pulmonary function tests on the normal healthy 2022 children, age from 6 through 15, and analyzed the data, with the parameters such as sex, age, height, weight, and body surface area. We calculated each of their simple and complex linear and logarithmic regression equations setting the predicted values. The results are as follows: 1) Predicted values of pulmonary function test items were generally higher in boys than those of girls. 2) A correlation coefficient to the parameters examined was the highest in FEV1, then those of FVC, FEF25,PEFR, FEF50, MMEF, AND FEF75 follow in order. 3) Of the parameters examined, height had the highest correlation coefficient consistently in all pulmonary function test items. 4) As compared with the inland and overseas data, some differences were observed.
Body Surface Area ; Child* ; Continental Population Groups ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Geography ; Humans ; Lung ; Lung Diseases ; Respiratory Function Tests*

The purpose of this study was to investigate setting and thermal expansion of dental soldering investments. In order to compare expansion rates and to investigate the effect of water/powder ratio on expansion, setting and thermal expansion of four dental soldering investments were measured under three different water/powder ratio conditions: standard, 20% decreased and 20% increased. Setting expansion of investments was measured by use of dialgauge method. Each measurement was started two minutes later from the beginning of spatulation and recorded every one minute for one hour. Thermal expansion of cylindrical test specimens, 10mm diameter, 50mm length, was recorded in a Thermodilatometer at heating rate of 10degrees C per minute from 25degrees C to 700degrees C. The results of this study were obtained as follows: 1. Setting expansion rates under the standard water/power ratio condition were 0.198% in Speed-E, 0.090% in Deguvest, 0.080% in CM and Hi-temp. Setting expansion of Speed-E was significantly different from those of CM, Deguvest and Hi-temp, and setting expansion of Deguvest was significantly different from those of CM and Hi-temp(p<.05). 2. Under the decreased water/powder ratio condition, there was significant increase in setting expansion of 4 dental soldering investments(p<.05). 3. There were no significant differences in setting expansions of investments except Hi-temp between standard and increased water/powder ratio condition(p<.05). 4. Thermal expansion rates under the standard water/powder ratio condition were 1.923% in Deguvest, 1.629% in Speed-E, 1.619% in Hi-temp and 1.580% in CM. No significant difference in thermal expansions under the standard water/powder ratio condition existed only between Speed-E and Hi-temp(p<.05). 5. Under the decreased water/powder ratio condition, there was significant increase in thermal expansion of CM and Deguvest but decrease in thermal expansion of Speed-E(p<.05). 6. Under the increased water/powder ratio condition, there was significant decrease in thermal expansion of CM, Deguvest and Speed-E but decrease in thermal expansion of Hi-temp(p<.05).
Dental Soldering* ; Heating ; Hot Temperature ; Investments*

BACKGROUND: Because ABO reverse typing reagents approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) for manual typing are rare in Korea, 3% DiaCell ABO A₁ red blood cell (RBC) reagents (DiaCell A₁, BioRad, DiaMed, Cressier, Switzerland) and DiaCell ABO B RBC reagents (DiaCell B) for a manual technique were compared with already approved RBC reagents for the acquisition of an import permit. METHODS: Residual plasmas or sera were collected after routine ABO grouping or other tests. The reverse typing tests were performed by a manual tube technique with DiaCell A₁& B as the test reagents and 0.8% ID-DiaCell ABO A₁& B RBC reagents, ID-Card for NaCl, and an IH-1000 autoanalyzer from the same manufacturer of DiaCell A₁& B as the control reagents. Agreements, clinical sensitivities and clinical specificities between test and control reagents were calculated. RESULTS: Comparison tests were performed in 1000 samples, and agreements were 99.9% for DiaCell A₁ and 100.0% for DiaCell B. Clinical sensitivities and clinical specificities were 99.9% and 100.0% for DiaCell A₁ and all 100.0% for DiaCell B, respectively. CONCLUSION: Because the evaluation results of DiaCell A₁ and B were all satisfied with more than 99% as the evaluation criteria of MFDS, they were concluded to be suitable for use as ABO reverse typing reagents for manual typing. The results of this study are also expected to be useful in the design of clinical trials for approval of future in vitro medical devices.
Erythrocytes* ; In Vitro Techniques ; Indicators and Reagents* ; Korea ; Plasma

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to report the first experience of using tests of antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) and antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) for the selection of blood donors in a tertiary hospital blood center in Korea. METHODS: From January 2005 to December 2007, the data of all eligible donors according to the Korean Blood Regulation Law were analyzed. Anti-HBc testing was performed in all donors, but anti-HBs was tested only in anti-HBc seropositive donors. Anti-HBs negative but anti-HBc positive donors were regarded as ineligible for blood donation. Cost for donor testing was calculated based on Korean health insurance payment schedule from 2005 to 2007. RESULTS: The seroprevalence of anti-HBc in blood donors was 23.2% (162/699) and increased with increasing age. The proportion of ineligible donors for blood collection was 2.7% (19/699) of total donors and 11.6% (19/162) of anti-HBc seropositive donors. The cost of testing for anti-HBc and anti-HBs was estimated to be about 40% of the total screening cost. CONCLUSIONS: Although additional donor screening tests for anti-HBc and anti-HBs requires increased cost and relatively small number of donors are additionally excluded by these tests, they are considered to be helpful for the safety of blood products, because our blood center has characteristics with small number of donors and relatively high percentage of donors in the age group of thirties and older.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Factors ; Blood Banks ; *Blood Donors ; Hepatitis B/diagnosis/economics ; Hepatitis B Antibodies/*blood ; Hepatitis B Core Antigens/*immunology ; Hepatitis B Surface Antigens/*immunology ; Humans ; Korea ; Laboratories, Hospital ; Middle Aged ; Seroepidemiologic Studies ; Serologic Tests/economics