Assessment of Organ and Tissue Procurement Knowledge in Health Care Workers Associated to Critical and Emergency Care Units

Objetivo: Evaluar el nivel de conocimiento de profesionales en salud frente a la donación de órganos y tejidos en Barranquilla. Metodología: Estudio transversal con encuesta semiestructurada sobre el conocimiento de la donación de órganos y tejidos en el personal de salud entre junio hasta diciembre de 2019. Se incluyen 232 profesionales de la salud en los servicios de Unidad de Cuidado Intensivo (UCI) adultos o pediátrica y Urgencias en seis Instituciones Prestadoras de Salud (IPS) de Barranquilla. Resultados: El 75 % de nuestros encuestados fueron mujeres. Se incluyó auxiliares de enfermería (43,5 %), enfermeras profesionales (25,4 %), médicos (22,8 %) y fisioterapeutas (8,2 %). El 84,5 % de los evaluados definió correctamente la muerte encefálica (ME); 50,4% tiene conocimiento adecuado sobre la presunción en donación; el 52,4 % identifica apropiadamente la legislación, y el 78,9% conoce la activación de alerta en donación. No se encontraron resultados estadísticamente significativos en nivel de conocimiento comparado entre IPS (p=0.42), aunque se encontró una diferencia entre el concepto de presunción legal de la donación entre los servicios UCI adulto, pediátrica y Urgencias (p=0.000) y la definición de ME entre los profesionales asociados (p=0.001). Conclusión: Este diagnóstico del nivel de conocimiento en donación y trasplantes identificó una contundente necesidad de educación y entrenamiento continuo que podría ser gestionada con esfuerzos regionales en pro del mejoramiento del proceso y la tasa de donación de órganos y tejidos.

Severe acute respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2: Can it be detected in the retina?

Background/Objectives The systemic organ involvement of SARS-CoV-2 needs to be thoroughly investigated including the possibility of an ocular reservoir in humans. To examine retinal tissues and vitreous for histopathology and SARS-CoV-2 presence with regard to possible effects on the human retina and/ or vitreous. We performed histopathological analyses and quantitative (q)RT-PCR-testing for SARS-CoV-2 RNA on retinal tissues and vitreous of COVID-19 postmortem donors. Subjects/Methods Included in this study were 10 eyes of 5 deceased COVID-19 patients. The diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed via pharyngeal swabs and broncho-alveolar fluids. The highest level of personal protective equipment (PPE) and measures was employed during fluid-tissue procurement and preparation. Histopathological examinations and qRT-PCR-testing were carried out for all retinal tissues and vitreous fluids. Results The histopathological examinations revealed no signs of morphologically identifiable retinal inflammation or vessel occlusions based on hematoxylin and eosin stains. By qRT-PCRs, we detected no significant level of viral RNA in human retina and vitreous. Conclusions In this study, no significant level of SARS-CoV-2-RNA was detected in the human retinal and vitreous fluid samples of deceased COVID-19 patients. Histopathological examinations confirmed no morphological sign of damage to retinal vasculature or tissues. Further studies are needed to confirm or refute the results.

Risk assessment in deferred and recovered donors

Serologic testing and Donor Risk Assessment Interview (DRAI) combined have made tissue transplantation a frequent and safe modality for a variety of trauma and disease conditions. Donate Life America reports 30,000 tissue donors providing more than 1,750,000 tissue transplants annually. This study of 188 potential donor cases addresses issues of risk assessment in a medical examiner population in a metropolitan area, where serologic testing of deferred potential donors were compared with the DRAI screening, which determined the suitability or non-suitability for tissue procurement. Such serologic testing of deferred cases is not usually available in evaluating screening processes. This comparison gives insight into the effectiveness of the DRAI screening in deferring potential serology reactive donors. Results show in 65 cases how the DRAI screening eliminates most, but not all of the serologically reactive donors identified post recovery. The result emphasizes the need for the combined process of DRAI screening and testing to assure transplantation safety.

Core needle biopsy wash as a tool for acquiring additional diagnostic material for laboratory testing

AimsTo determine if a simple prewash step added to the processing workflow of tissue procurement by a core needle biopsy device will recover enough cells to expand the laboratory testing armamentarium.MethodsTissue was obtained from unfixed resection specimens using a core needle device and washed in a buffered solution before fixation. This creates a liquid aliquot from which dislodged cells can be kept and separated from the tissue specimen, the latter of which can then undergo traditional formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded processing.ResultsCells dislodged from the tissue during the biopsy procedure are recoverable, are representative of the tissue section and of sufficient quantities for additional laboratory testing.ConclusionsThe core needle biopsy wash is an under-recognised and underutilised approach to extending the diagnostic capabilities of the limited amount of targeted material obtained during this common procedure. The ability to recover supplemental amounts of diagnostic material yields great potential as a substrate for a multitude of current and developing laboratory assays.