Wendell C. Peacock

THE MEASUREMENT OF POST-TRANSFUSION SURVIVAL OF PRESERVED STORED HUMAN ERYTHROCYTES BY MEANS OF TWO ISOTOPES OF RADIO-ACTIVE IRON

The evaluation of the efficacy of whole blood transfusion in augmenting total red cell volume has always been of interest to physicians called upon to care for patients with hemorrhage, burns, blood dyscrasias, or traumatic shock. The establishment of blood banks, resulting in an increasing use of stored blood, has focused more attention on the problem. Military requirements have created a demand for the preservation of whole blood over far longer periods than are required for civilian purposes. The urgent need for better preservative solutions and for the selection of the best conditions for overseas air transport of whole blood for the Armed Forces made it imperative that an accurate method of measuring the post-transfusion survival of stored human erythrocytes be available. The morphological and chemical changes that take place in red cells during storage have been studied by several laboratory methods. The rate. of spontaneous hemolysis, changes in cell dimension, changes in the permeability of the cell membrane, changes in osmotic resistance to hypotonic solutions of NaCl, rate of diffusion of potassium, and disturbances in carbohydrate metabolism have all been proposed as in vitro tests for the evaluation of the ability of stored red cells to survive after transfusion. Each of these tests assays only changes in one functional characteristic of the. erythrocyte and it is for this reason that the opinion has been expressed that in vitro tests fail as a guide to the

THE EFFECT OF VARYING TEMPERATURES ON THE POST-TRANSFUSION SURVIVAL OF WHOLE BLOOD DURING DEPOT STORAGE AND AFTER TRANSPORTATION BY LAND AND AIR

The successful establishment of a military whole blood transfusion service is dependent upon reducing damage to the cells from mechanical agitation incident to land, sea, and air transportation to a minimum. Robertson (1) successfully transported whole blood in Rous-Turner solution by ambulance for short distances in World War I. Blood from civilian donor centers was shipped to front lines during the Spanish Civil War (2). Maycock has reported on the use of blood transported in refrigerated trucks during the Battle of Flanders (3). During the invasion of Europe blood banks were in operation in many theatres, blood being obtained from military personnel, a necessarily limited source of supply. The establishment of the American Red Cross Blood Donor Service, taking blood for processing of plasma, afforded a potentially adequate supply source, provided blood could withstand shipment across the Atlantic and far out into the Pacific oceans. The distances involved were so great that air transport was the only feasible means of transportation that would get blood to medical personnel before it had seriously deteriorated. It was obvious that only the best known whole blood preservatives would suffice, and 2 solutions, Alsevers (4) and acid-citrate-dextrose (5), were under consideration by the Armed Forces at the time this study was undertaken. The comparative value of these 2 solutions for depot storage under constant refrigeration has been reported (6), ACD being superior to Alsevers. The survival of these cells in these preservatives after long-range ship-

An Automatic Sample Changer to Be Used for Measuring Radioactive Samples

A sample changer used in the routine measurement of large numbers of radioactive samples is described. It has been used with a scaling circuit and an interval timer for single tracer experiments and with counting rate meters for double tracer experiments. Circuits and methods of preparing samples are included.