Background: The 2016 and 2023 AABB international red blood cell (RBC) transfusion guidelines recommend, in addition to restrictive transfusion practices, that clinicians also consider the patient’s overall clinical context when making transfusion decisions (1). However, there is little empiric data on which specific clinical factors, other than Hb, should inform transfusion decisions in hospitalized patients [...]

Background: Patients undergoing cardiac surgery are at risk of anemia from blood loss, inflammation, and red blood cell lysis, necessitating blood product utilization and increasing the risk of post-operative complications. RBT-1 (a combination of stannic protoporfin and iron sucrose) is a novel preconditioning drug administered prior to surgery that upregulates anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and iron scavenging [...]

Background: Blood transfusions are one of the most common hospital procedures in the United States, often associated with adverse events, high costs, and limited availability [1-3]. Prior literature has shown that non-transfusion medicine physicians have poor to intermediate transfusion medicine knowledge (TMK) [4-7]. While physicians often use hemoglobin (Hgb) levels to determine when transfusion is [...]

Case Presentation: A 69-year-old male with hypertension, prostate cancer in remission, and recent diagnosis of lymphoma presented after experiencing a fall. Prior workup for abdominal pain, fever, night sweats, and weight loss revealed splenomegaly, anemia, and diffuse lymphadenopathy. Bone marrow biopsy demonstrated malignant lymphoma with prominent follicular helper T-cell component occupying 25-30% of the sampled [...]

Case Presentation: A 65 year old female with a history of type one diabetes presented to an outside hospital with malaise, fatigue, and fever for two weeks. Her social history was notable for frequently participating in the interactive game of Geocaching in the outdoors of southeastern PA. On arrival she had severe sepsis with a [...]

Case Presentation: A man in his late 70s presented to the emergency department after multiple falls and new onset altered mental status. Past medical history included hypertension, hyperlipidemia, chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage III, and previous infection with anaplasmosis over a decade prior.On clinical exam, the patient was afebrile, hypoxic, and meeting SIRS criteria with [...]

Case Presentation: A 52-year-old woman presented to the emergency department with altered mental status, headaches, and bilateral visual loss. She was admitted a month prior due to severe anemia with hemoglobin of 1.6 grams per deciliter resulting from chronic menorrhagia. She had received multiple blood transfusions at that time.On presentation, her blood pressure was 130/62 [...]