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Article: Banked blood loses ability to deliver oxygen to tissues.(Outpatient Connection)
- Article from:
- Healthcare Purchasing News
- Article date:
- November 1, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Healthcare Purchasing News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Almost immediately after it is donated, human blood begins to lose a Key gas that opens up blood vessels to facilitate the transfer of oxygen from red blood cells to oxygen-starved tissues. Thus, millions of patients are apparently receiving transfusions with blood that is impaired in its ability to deliver oxygen, according to Duke University Medical Center researchers, who reported the results of their studies in two separate papers appearing early on-line in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They also found that adding this gas back to stored blood before transfusion appears to restore red blood cells' ability to transfer oxygen to tissues. These ...