Background Physicians may be an important source of blood donations as they are more likely to be familiar with the importance of donating and the donation process. The aim of this study is to report physicians' knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards voluntary and non‐voluntary blood donations. Study Design and Methods This was a cross‐sectional study conducted at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH&RC), Saudi Arabia. One‐hundred‐and‐sixteen physicians and dentists responded to an online structured questionnaire sent to their institutional emails. Results Sixty‐eight percent of participants (79% of males and 43% of females) reported previously having donated blood. Eighty‐six percent of donors had previously donated on a voluntary basis, whereas 31% of donors had previously donated for a specific person. A recent donation within 5 years was associated with the younger age group and knowledge of the minimum interval between donations. Fifty‐six percent of participants agreed with using replacement donations. Compared to participants in the youngest age group (25‐35 years), older participants in the age groups (46‐55 years) and (>55 years) were less likely to express intention to donate in the next 6 months (OR 0.289, P = .022 and OR 0.083, P = .004, respectively). Participants reporting poor nutritional status or other medical reasons as a barrier to donating blood were less likely to intend to donate (OR 0.146, P < .001). Among previous donors, intention to donate was associated with a recent donation within 1 year (OR 27.13, P = .002) and having had a pleasant donation experience (OR 14.98, P < .001). Conclusion Blood donation practices are strongly tied to physicians' gender and age and their knowledge of the donation process. The most significant barrier to blood donation was found to be nutritional and medical status.
While different Pediatric ALL study groups have used varying definitions of early response (BM vs. PB, prophase vs. day 7 vs. day 14), all agree that it provides critical prognostic information. Bone Marrow aspiration and biopsy (BMA/B) is an invasive procedure requiring sedation or anesthesia, and an early/mid induction specimen may be difficult to interpret even by experienced hematopathologists. In this study we attempted to determine if there was a concordance between peripheral blood blast (PBB) clearance and the findings of the day 14 BMA/B, and whether day 7 PBB count could reliably replace a mid induction BMA/B. Clinical data for newly diagnosed pediatric (<14 years) ALL patients between January 1999 and December 2001 were retrieved from our prospective database. Day 14 BMA/B slides were reviewed independently by two hematopathologist. For the total 165 patients, median age was 4 years, 53.9% were boys. Complete information was available for 151 of these patients and further analysis is based on this number. 124 (82.1%) were treated with 4 agents while the remainder received a 3-drug induction. 23 (18.5%) had positive PBB on D7, and 21 (13.9%) had >5% blasts in the D14 BMA/B. The D7 PBB count could positively and negatively predict the D14 BMA/B 71.9% and 89.4% of the times, respectively. In conclusion, when the D14 BMA/B is used as a measure of early response, an absence of D7 PBB can reliably predict a negative BM, however persistence of PBB does not necessarily predict a sub-optimal BM response to early therapy. Therefore, patients without PBB on D7 may not require BMA/B on D14, therefore avoiding an invasive procedure for this group of patients.
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