No abstract

BACKGROUND Blood group plays a vital role in the field of transfusion medicine, forensic pathology, and is genetically determined. Some authors have found epistaxis to be more common in people with O blood group, while some other authors found no association. We assessed the effect of ABO blood group system on the bleeding time (BT) and clotting time (CT) of medical students. METHODS A total of 77 MBBS students consisting of 32 females and 45 males in the age group of 18-25 yrs. were selected. The exclusion criteria for selection of the students were any history of bleeding disorders and NSAID intake. Data was collected including age, sex, height and weight. Blood grouping and estimation of bleeding time and clotting time was done for all subjects. RESULTS The mean age of the 77 students was 19.4 ± 1.07 years. There were more males (58.41%) than females (41.6%) in the study group. The most common blood group was O +ve (29.9%) followed by B +ve (29.9%), A +ve (27.3%) and AB +ve (14.3%). There was no Rh-ve blood group. The mean BT in seconds was 151±33 (range 60 to 270). The mean CT was 224 ± 49 seconds (range 120 to 360). The BT and CT in all the subjects were found to be within normal range. CONCLUSIONS In the present study, O blood group was found to be the most common among the various blood groups in both males and females. Our study also shows a trend of longer BT in females and longer CT in females, but these were not statistically significant.

The authors evaluated complications in pediatric acute leukemia with "very high" leukocytosis (VHL) prior to rasburicase availability and without leukopheresis. From Jun 2003 through Dec 2009, 45 out of 457 (10 %) pediatric acute leukemia patients had VHL. Median WBC for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients was 296,500/mm3 (200,000-615,220) and 206,300/mm3 (106,100-541,900) respectively. Laboratory and clinical tumor-lysis-syndrome was seen in 37.7 % and 13.3 % patients respectively; none required dialysis; 6.6 % died due to CNS/pulmonary bleed. Thrombocytopenia <31,000/mm3 was associated with hypocalcemia (p = 0.04) and mortality (p = 0.04), and hypoalbuminemia with kidney dysfunction (p = 0.04). In resource-limited setting, VHL patients with thrombocytopenia may warrant rasburicase with or without leukopheresis, and aggressive platelet support.