James Crowley, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Brown University, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“A 1998 article in Transfusion by C Robert Valeri, James P Crowley, and Joseph Loscalzo argued that overly restrictive transfusion triggers shifted risk from ‘sins of commission’ (over-transfusion) to ‘sins of omission’ (under-transfusion).
The authors warned that limiting blood use to avoid very low current infection risks may cause harm by restricting necessary oxygen delivery and hemostasis support in situations where oxygen delivery is compromised. (Read the full analysis)
More recently, in cooperation with researchers in France and the United States, Carson in 2023 acquired data from the four clinical trials evaluating blood transfusion in 4,311 patients with heart attacks.
These trials included patients who had a heart attack and low blood count. Half the patients received less blood transfusions and the other half received more blood transfusions.
The trials compared the frequency of death at 30 days or recurrent heart attacks and death at six months.
The researchers compared the frequency of the main outcome of death or recurrent heart attack at 30 days after enrollment into the trial.
Although not statistically significant, the study found the frequency of mortality or recurrent heart attack was 2.4% lower when a liberal approach was used.
‘The results of this analysis show that giving more blood to anemic patients with heart attacks can save lives at six months,’ Carson said.
Both studies were funded through by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which is a part of the National Institutes of Health.”
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