Transfusion
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Usually, a predonation hemoglobin (Hb) measurement must precede blood donation. Hb values of a donor's previous donation might be used for selecting a subgroup in which predonation Hb measurements are unnecessary. ⋯ Selecting donors for a current Hb measurement based upon their last whole-blood predonation Hb value is a useful method, even after prolonged interdonation intervals.
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The objective was to evaluate the performance of nucleic acid testing (NAT) in the detection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive blood donations. ⋯ These results demonstrate that HBV-NAT in ID format is far more effective in detecting viremia in chronic HBsAg carriers than in MP-NAT. The sensitivity of the NAT assay needs to be improved to be considered for replacing the current HBsAg assays, especially when anti-HBc testing is not performed.