Pathogen reduction is a viable approach to ensure the continued safety of the blood supply against emerging pathogens. However, the currently licensed pathogen reduction techniques are ineffective against non-enveloped viruses such as hepatitis A virus, and they introduce chemicals with concerns of side effects which prevent their widespread use. In this report, we demonstrate the inactivation of both enveloped and non-enveloped viruses in human plasma using a novel chemical-free method, a visible ultrashort pulsed laser. We found that laser treatment resulted in 2-log, 1-log, and 3-log reductions in human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis A virus, and murine cytomegalovirus in human plasma, respectively. Laser-treated plasma showed ≥70% retention for most coagulation factors tested. Furthermore, laser treatment did not alter the structure of a model coagulation factor, fibrinogen. Ultrashort pulsed lasers are a promising new method for chemical-free, broad-spectrum pathogen reduction in human plasma.

These results prompted MDH to increase efforts to provide education to birth registrars on the importance of hepatitis B vaccine data on the birth certificate and to promote regular transmission of hospital vaccination data to the IIS.

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Introduction The Sysmex XN‐10 automated hematology analyzer (Sysmex Corporation) is routinely used in hematology laboratories to perform complete blood cell count with differential (CBC w/ diff). The sensitivity of this system for blast detection is unclear, since many prior studies evaluating the blast flagging capabilities of Sysmex XN series used the white precursor cell (WPC) channel, which is not cleared for use in the United States. Methods We assessed the blast flagging capabilities of the Sysmex XN‐10 compared with CellaVision (a cell image analyzer)‐assisted visual hematology results. We evaluated the following flags: “blasts?/abnormal lymph?” and “immature granulocytes present” and compared differences in turnaround time between methods. Results We collected data on 2239 CBC w/ diff Sysmex automated analyzer differential and CellaVision‐assisted visual differential from the inpatient hematology‐oncology population of a tertiary care medical center. Solely analyzing the first CBC/diff from each unique patient, both flags had a combined sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 50.2%, PPV of 21.7%, and NPV of 100%. The mean turnaround time for the automated differential was 19.5 minutes (SD 35.9 minutes) compared with 66.4 minutes for the CellaVision‐assisted visual differential (SD 68.5 minutes; P < 0.001; Figure 1). Conclusion The Sysmex XN‐10 abnormal lymphocyte/blast and immature granulocytes flags had excellent sensitivity and acceptable specificity in detecting circulating blasts with shorter turnaround time than the CellaVision‐assisted visual differential. Our study suggests that automated differentials performed on Sysmex XN‐10 can replace visual differentials as a first‐line screening method for blast detection with improved turnaround time in hematology‐oncology populations.

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