Bacterial contamination of blood products in Africa.

BACKGROUND: Bacterial contamination of blood components (notably platelets) remains a leading infectious risk to the blood supply. There has been extensive research in high-income countries to characterize the risk of bacterial contamination along with adoption of strategies to mitigate that risk. By contrast, related data in Africa are lacking. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: An electronic survey was distributed to members of African Society of Blood Transfusion to assess existing or planned measures at African blood centers and hospitals to mitigate bacterial contamination of blood products. A literature review of studies pertaining to related transfusion-associated risk in Africa was conducted to complement the findings. RESULTS: Forty-five responses were received, representing 16 African countries. All respondents were urban, either in blood centers (n = 36) or hospital-based transfusion services (n = 9). Reported measures included skin disinfection (n = 41 [91.1%]); diversion pouches (n = 14 [31.1%]); bacterial culture (n = 9 [20%]); pathogen reduction (PR) (n = 3 [6.7%]); and point-of-release testing (PoRT) (n = 2 [4.4%]). Measures being considered for implementation included: skin disinfection (n = 2 [4.4%]); diversion pouches (n = 2 [4.4%]); bacterial culture n = 14 (31.1%); PR (n = 11 [24.4%]); and PoRT (n = 4 [8.9%]). Of the 38 respondents who reported collection of platelets, 14 (36.8%) and 8 (21.1%) reported using diversion pouches and bacterial culture, respectively. The literature review identified 36 studies on the epidemiology of bacterial contamination and septic transfusion reactions in Africa; rates of contamination ranged from 0% to 17.9%. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that prevention of bacterial contamination of blood components and transfusion-associated sepsis in Africa remains neglected. Regional preventive measures have not been widely adopted.

Amyloid-ß oligomers as a template for secondary amyloidosis in Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease is a complex disease characterized by overlapping phenotypes with different neurodegenerative disorders. Oligomers are considered the most toxic species in amyloid pathologies. We examined human AD brain samples using an anti-oligomer antibody generated in our laboratory and detected potential hybrid oligomers composed of amyloid-ß, prion protein, α-synuclein, and TDP-43 phosphorylated at serines 409 and 410. These data and in vitro results suggest that Aß oligomer seeds act as a template for the aggregation of other proteins and generate an overlapping phenotype with other neuronal disorders. Furthermore, these results could explain why anti-amyloid-ß therapy has been unsuccessful.

Clinical Relevance of Cancerization of Ducts in Resected Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.

OBJECTIVES: Although prevalent in 50%-90% of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, the clinical relevance of "cancerization of ducts" (COD) remains unknown. METHODS: Pathologists retrospectively reviewed slides classifying prevalence of COD. Histopathological parameters, location of first recurrence, recurrence-free survival (RFS), and overall survival (OS) were collected from the institutional pancreatectomy registry. RESULTS: Among 311 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, COD was present in 216 (69.5%) and more prevalent in the cohort that underwent upfront surgery (75.3% vs 63.1%, P = 0.019). Furthermore, COD was associated with female gender (P = 0.040), advanced T stage (P = 0.007), perineural invasion (P = 0.014), lymphovascular invasion (P = 0.025), and R1 margin (P = 0.009), but not N stage (P = 0.401) or tumor differentiation (P = 0.717). In multivariable regression, COD was associated with less liver recurrence (odds ratio, 0.44; P < 0.005). This association was driven by the cohort of patients who had received preoperative treatment (odds ratio, 0.18; P < 0.001). COD was not predictive for RFS or OS. CONCLUSIONS: Cancerization of ducts was not associated with RFS or OS. Currently underrecognized, standardized implementation into histopathological reports may have merit, and further mechanistic scientific experiments need to illuminate its clinical and biologic impact.