Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Is Donated Tissue Dangerous?

Testing to make blood transfusions safer has been extensively done. But what about testing tissue donations? A new study shows the measures done to check for viruses such as hepatitis B or human immunodeficiency virus in tissue donations are effective, but could be improved.

Tissue banks in the United States collect, process and distribute a variety of tissues including heart valves, venous tissue, bone, bone-derived products, and connective tissues. Researchers from the American Red Cross conducted a study to look at testing procedures to reduce the risk of transmission of viral infections from tissue grafts.

For the research, investigators examined 11,391 tissue donations from five tissue banks in the United States. Researchers looked at the rates of prevalence of hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, HIV, and human T-lymphotrophic virus among tissue donors. The probability of the virus undetected by screening at the time of the donation was estimated based on the window periods for each infection.

The prevalence of confirmed positive tests among tissue donors was 1 percent or less for each of the viruses. The estimated probability of a virus at the time of donation ranged from 1 in 55,000 for HIV to 1 in 128,000 for HTLV.

Researchers conclude the prevalence rates for the four infections are lower among tissue donors than in the general population. However, the estimated undetected virus at the time of donation is higher among tissue donors than first-time blood donors. Study authors say while the current measures to detect viruses in tissue donations are effective, improvements can be made. They recommend adding a nucleic acid amplification test to reduce the numbers even more. They say that test costs about $5 per product.


SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine, 2004;351:751-759

No comments:

Post a Comment