43nd Annual Immunohematology & Blood Transfusion Symposium
The Annual Immunohematology and Blood Transfusion Symposium was co-hosted virtually in September by the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center's Department of Transfusion Medicine and The American Red Cross.
The successful symposium was designed to provide practical information about recent developments, current practices, controversies, and laboratory management issues relevant to transfusion medicine.
The learning objectives of the symposium were to:
- Summarize the clinical characteristics of sickle cell disease and explore advances in potentially curative therapies.
- Assess management of weak D types 1, 2,3, 4.0 and 4.1 as RhD-positive for transfusion and pregnancy.
- Identify the role of extracorporeal photopheresis in management of patients with GvHD and potential obstacles in sustaining this treatment in patients with bleeding complications.
- Evaluate how members of the healthcare team can identify a potentially fatal transfusion reaction in patients who have undiagnosed alpha-gal syndrome.
- Explain the barriers of recruiting and maintaining a varied donor pool in the backdrop of an aging donor base.
- Explain potential causes of inability to identify antibody reactivity and evaluate the need for a process change for their laboratory to optimize transfusion outcomes when these cases present; appraising and discussing alternatives with physicians for a patient with an antibody of undetermined specificity.
- Evaluate new management strategies in treating patients with platelet refractoriness due to HLA-alloimmunization.