Donated human milk is the best substitute for breast milk in the case when the mother cannot feed her baby. Human milk banks provide safe and high quality donated human milk. That was the reason why the Human Milk Bank was established in the Croatian Tissue and Cell Bank at the Zagreb University Hospital Centre in January 2020. The Bank works in accordance with the Law on the Application of Human Tissues and Cells. In this paper, we present the results of the Bank work since from its opening until June 2020. Due to logistic reasons caused by the COVID-19 epidemic and the earthquake in Zagreb, the Human Milk Bank did not collect milk for 43 days. Milk was donated by 31 mothers. Their median age was 31 years and 81% of them had high education level. In 52% of cases, mothers started donating milk three months after giving birth. Most donors donated milk only once (45%). The median period of donation was 46 days. The majority (52%) of donors gave birth for the fi rst time, in the expected term of childbirth (94%), birth weight was >2500 g. Only three of donors’ children (9%) were in intensive care. A total of 175.5 L of milk were collected (mean 5.7 L per donor), of which 151.5 L met the requirements of input quality control, and 141 L were pasteurized. A critical number of viable aerobic and facultative bacteria were identifi ed in 32.6% of milk pools prepared for pasteurization, and 8.9% after pasteurization. For clinical use, 78.7 L were dispensed in three neonatal intensive care units. The Human Milk Bank has already shown the importance of its activities during the fi rst months of operation. In order to be able to meet the needs for donated human milk at the national level, it is necessary to constantly inform mothers about the importance of human milk and to promote its donation.

She received intravenous Phenobarbital 10 mg/kg followed by 5 mg/kg/day. Initial laboratory findings including lumbal pucture and initial metabolic evaluation were all unremarkable. A tumor or congenital malformation of the left hemisphere of the brain was suspected after the first two dimensional brain ultrasonography. Multi Slice Computed Tomography (MSCT) revealed left HME, confirmed with the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) together with polymicrogyria of frontal lobe, atypical form of the left Sylvian fissure and the left frontal ventriculomegaly. She developed refractory seizures (tonic; focal with automatismssquelching, eye blinking; generalised, often waking her up from sleep). EEG showed suppression burst pattern and after extensive diagnostic evaluation the Ohtahara syndrome was diagnosed.Despite several different antiepileptic drugs, and their different combination, frequency and severity of the seizures did not improve and she developed severe developmental delay. At the age of 10 months she underwent functional hemispherotomy, and so far, eight months after the surgery she experienced no seizures together with major improvement in neuromotor development (despite strabismus and right hemiparesis which occurred after surgery). Her twin sister is healthy, normally developing, without seizures. Our findings are in comply with the data from the literature, claiming that after surgery the improvement of the patients is remarkable.

BackgroundPre-transfusion tests vary in sensitivity and specificity and should be evaluated before their implementation into routine use. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the Grifols DG Gel column agglutination system and to compare the data with two other column agglutination systems used in our laboratory: Ortho BioVue and Bio-Rad. Special attention was focused on using more vials of reagent red blood cells by Grifols DG Gel system when compared to other systems in order to investigate whether it increases the sensitivity for clinically significant antibodies. MethodsAll samples were tested in parallel with Grifols DG Gel, Ortho BioVue and Bio-Rad cards according to manufactures' instructions. Samples were processed through manual instrumentation. Tests were performed by trained and experienced staff. A total of 419 tests were performed on 302 samples. ResultsConcordant results between Grifols DG Gel system and the other two systems were obtained in 93.8% of the tests. For antibody screening by Grifols DG Gel system, sensitivity was 97.53%, specificity was 100%, predictive positive value was 100% and predictive negative value was 97.73%. For antibody identification, the accuracy was 96.03% for Grifols DG Gel system, 97.22% for Ortho BioVue and 94.44% for Bio-Rad. ConclusionsThe Grifols DG gel system shows high diagnostic accuracy and is safe for pre-transfusion compatibility procedures in blood transfusion laboratories. Using more vials of reagent red blood cells by Grifols DG Gel system when compared to other systems increases the sensitivity for some antibody specificities, particularly anti-Jk a . This could have major impact on the prevention of delayed transfusion reactions.