Science / Medicine : Protein Helps to Avoid Transfusion

A naturally occurring protein that stimulates blood production apparently can help many patients avoid transfusions with donated blood that might be tainted by diseases such as AIDS.

A new study found that the protein, a hormone known as erythropoietin, boosted the amount of blood that surgery patients could store up for their own use, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The findings indicate that patients who know they are going to need blood during surgery but do not have time to store up enough of their own or are too anemic to do so could be injected with the substance to avoid donated blood, researchers said.

In the new study, headed by Dr. Lawrence Goodnough, an associate professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, researchers asked 47 patients scheduled for surgery at hospitals across the country to store up blood for three weeks. Half the group was given erythropoietin injections twice weekly. The other half received a useless substitute.

The patients who received erythropoietin produced 5.4 units of blood, compared to only 4.1 from the other group.

Also, blood from those who received the protein contained 41% more oxygen-carrying red blood cells, the researchers reported.