Plenary Session Highlights Six Scientific Abstracts
By Jay Pennington

Among the 989 scientific oral and poster abstracts accepted for presentation in Montréal, six were selected for presentation at the plenary session. Plan to hear these outstanding presentations on Sunday from 8:30 to 10:00 am in Room 516C.

• Human Neutrophil Antigen Antibody Prevalence in US Blood Donors. The results that will be presented are part of the NIH Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study, which evaluated the prevalence of HLA antibodies. The presentation will comment on the potential value for neutrophil antibody screening in addition to HLA antibody screening of donors with a pregnancy history.
• Red Blood Cell Transfusion to a Hemoglobin of 10 g/dL Does Not Improve Survival in Non-Cardiac, Elective Surgical Patients: An Analysis of 117,418 Patients. A retrospective analysis of Haemonetics data involving patients from 20 hospitals from 2002 to 2007 was used to evaluate whether the common practice of providing allogeneic transfusion to raise hemoglobin levels to 10 g/dL effectively reduces mortality.
• Duration and Recency of Risk Exposure in Male Blood Donors Deferred for Sex with Another Man. This study focused on male donors who were deferred for having had sex with another man since 1977 (MSMs) but whose MSM exposure was more than 1 year ago. The study evaluated the potential effect on the donor pool of accepting this subgroup as donors.
• Selection, Expansion, and Functional Restoration of NS3-Specific CD4 T Cells from HCV-Infected Patients. In this study, hepatitis C virus (HCV)-specific CD4 T cells were isolated from five patients with persistent infection and five patients with spontaneous resolved infection. Functional restoration of interferon-g production was evaluated after ex-vivo expansion with homeostatic interleukins in the absence of the antigenic stimulus.
• Trypanosoma cruzi Antibody Screening in US Blood Donors: One Year Experience at the American Red Cross. The authors will report results of testing for the parasite that causes Chagas’ disease, by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and radioimmunoprecipitation assay. Prevalence and look-back data will be presented, along with an evaluation of the relationship between transfusion and recipient infection.
• Early Screening of Apheresis Platelets Reduces the Risk of Bacterially Contaminated Platelets—the PASSPORT Study. The purpose of the study was to test stored apheresis platelets for the presence of bacteria at 7 days (at outdate) and to compare the results with samples obtained 24 to 36 hours after collection. Reported septic episodes from stored platelets were also evaluated.