ISBT presentations

Bethany Brown, PhD, MSCS, will present on the history of cold stored platelets, current clinical data, the regulatory landscape, and hurdles to implementation at the Fresenius Kabi Lunch Symposium. She will also present at the Transfusion Transmitted Infectious Diseases Working Party focused on bacteria, where she will provide updates on platelet safety from the American Red Cross, including pathogen reduction, bacterial screening, and bacterial risk mitigations.

Galen Conti, MPH, will present the results of a survey created by the “Global Blood Safety” and the “Transfusion-Transmitted Infectious Diseases” working parties of the ISBT. The survey is focused on country-level transfusion-transmitted infection testing and policy.

Margaret Keller, PhD, will be presenting “Managing a Frozen Rare Blood Inventory: A Survey of American Rare Donor Program Member Facilities” and “Rare Donor Programs and IgA Deficiency – Defining the Landscape.”

Paula Saá, PhD, will present data collected to investigate if a Chagas indeterminate (IN) result obtained using screening and confirmatory assays formulated with the same antigens is an indicator of true infection.

Bryan Spencer, PhD, MPH, will present his analysis of a study designed to estimate and characterize the difference between venous (V) hemoglobin (Hb) and capillary (C) Hb in a large cohort of blood donors, and to investigate the potential implications of performing Hb measurements using portable devices with a capillary sample (known to be less accurate than those measured on hematology analyzers using a venous sample) for donor health, transfusion outcomes, and blood center operations.

Laura Tonnetti, PhD, will be providing an update on the efficacy of Babesia NAT testing limited to endemic areas. Babesia microti was considered the leading transfusion-transmitted infection in the US until the implementation of nucleic acid testing (NAT) for Babesia in endemic areas in May 2020.

Other studies to be presented include:

  1. Enhanced SARS-CoV-2 reinfection detection using expanded dynamic range anti-nucleocapsid antibody testing in repeat blood donors. E Grebe, M Stone, D Wright, D Chacreton, B Spencer, J Haynes, A Akinseye, M Lanteri, V Green, V I Avelino-Silva, R L Bruhn, B Custer, B J Biggerstaff, M Coughlin, J M Jones, M P Busch

  2. Long COVID in blood donors: prevalence, associations with post-infection SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels, and clinical subphenotypes. V I Avelino-Silva, R Bruhn, K G Zurita, X Deng, E A Yu, E Grebe, M Stone, M C Lanteri, B R Spencer, M P Busch, B Custer

  3. Blood donor SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with increased platelet transfusion effectiveness in recipients without acute COVID-19. N Roubinian, C Plimier, B R Spencer, M Bravo, R Bruhn, M Stone, E Grebe, P Saa, K Thomas, R Goel, E A Hod, B Custer, S Kleinman, P Norris, M Busch

  4. Screening and testing of blood donors for Chagas disease based on recent travel destinations: Results from an international survey conducted by the ISBT’s TTID working party. A Lewin, L Tonnetti, S Drews, E Bloch, C Tafock, S O'Brien