Cytokines are cellular growth factors which also provide communication between cells and their milieu. This clearly is an exciting area in modern medicine that will have significant impact on various facets of transfusion. Erythropoietin therapy stimulates red cell production while thrombopoietin seems to positively affect megakaryopoiesis and can be an added armamentarium for the thrombocytopenic patient.
Using haematnopoietic growth factors, stem cells could be mobilized early to the peripheral blood for collection and subsequent transplantation into haemato-oncology patients instead...

It is an honour and a pleasure to welcome you all at this 20th annual International Symposium on Blood Transfusion in the Netherlands. This year you celebrate its 20th anniversary and I congratulate the Staff of the Blood Bank Noord Nederland and especially Dr. Smit Sibinga for this great achievement. As most of you know, the name of the person of Dr. Smit Sibinga is unbreakably con nected with the annual symposium in Groningen which he has organized each year from the very start, 20 years ago. The reputation of any symposium depends heavily on the quality of the lectures. I think it is not...

This symposium is devoted to Biotechnology in Blood Transfusion; there are 22 experts discussing the state of the art in the application of monoclonal anti bodies, recombinant DNA technologies and heterologous expression systems to the improvement and sometimes replacement of blood products, charac terization of blood constituents, and the effect of these developments on blood transfusion procedures. Ten and maybe five years ago the title of a symposium such as this would have been Biosciences in blood transfusion, informing what basic developments in molecular biology, biochemistry and human...

As a clinical discipline blood transfusion encompasses enormous vista, vary- ing from biotechnology to molecular biology, from plasma products, cell biology and growth factors to interleukines. Growth of knowledge in this field has been rapid, and expertise is now required to be mastered and renewed in translating these ideas for patient care. Various types of cells could be harvested - progenitor stem cells derived from bone marrow or from circulating blood as a source for transplants; in the hemostatic armoury platelets could be used prophylactically; granulocytes and mononuclear cells are...

Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Symposium on Blood Transfusion, Groningen 1985, organized by the Red Cross Blood Bank Groningen-Drenthe

Plasma fractionation and blood transfusion are inherently linked. Blood bankers need to have a sincere interest in fractionation and purification techniques in order to understand the need for carefully controlled source material collection and initial processing. Developments point to a shift in technology, implementation and application of plasma fractions to be produced, such that early anticipation from both bloodbankers and fractionators in a joint interest and effort are needed. As usual there is good news and bad news. We are referring in that respect to the exciting presentation about...

THE PHILOSOPHY OF QUALITY ASSURANCE IN THE BLOOD BANK H. F. Taswell One year before this symposium, Cees Smit Sibinga and I began to discuss an approach to quality assurance in the blood bank which we felt would be both important and practical and could serve as the basis for the choice of subjects to be presented in the symposium. As an introduction to this book, I would like to outline our approach, the subjects chosen and the rationale behind our choice. What is the fundamental purpose of a blood bank and trans fusion service? Simply stated, the purpose of a blood bank and transfusion...

Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Symposium on Blood Transfusion, Groningen 1983, organized by the Red Cross Blood Bank Groningen-Drenthe

With great pleasure I welcome you to the City of Groningen. In more than one way there is cause for celebration. Today marks the third lustrum of the annual international sympo- sium on blood transfusion, organized by the Rode Kruis Bloedbank Groningen-Drenthe. In my opinion it has been a remarkable initiative of the Bloedbank, to start organizing a scientific conference, as it did, in 1976. It meant, among others, that in case of success the initiative would grow to be an annual item on the international congress calen- der. It also meant that a possible third lustrum would coincide with the...

J. DE GROOTE One of the most ominous and troublesome complications of the liver disease is the appearance of hemorrhagic phenomena. Many careful clini- cal observations about the relationship of liver function and of bilia- ry tree pathology have been published. A vast amount of research work has been devoted to the subject. The severity of the hemorrhagic disor- der is usually in relation to the liver disease. In mild chronic hepa- titis or short lasting obstruction slight subcutaneous or mucosal blee- ding may (lraw the attention of the patient and the doctor, but they are as such far from...