The authors have used autotransfusion of intraoperatively collected blood in 58 vascular surgery cases over a period of more than two years. The clinical results confirm the experimental and laboratory studies on the quality of the autotransfused blood. A more liberal use of intraoperative autotransfusion is advocated. Intraoperative autotransfusion is a simple, safe, inexpensive and cost-effective technique. It saves homologous banked blood and provides a readily available, compatible, normothermic transfusate with superior hematologic qualities.

Blood Transfusion, Autologous↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Muscle pathology in ankylosing spondylitis.

The results of histological, histochemical and electron microscopic study of the muscular involvement in eight patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) are described. Muscle tissue from all these patients showed gross abnormalities of the sacrospinalis muscle, which had a 'targetoid core' appearance common to several myopathic and neurological diseases. In our opinion, there is always constant and early involvement of this muscle in AS. Several factors associated with the disease (chronic inflammation, multiple enthesopathies, muscle stiffness and bone lesions) could be responsible for this not fully understood aspect of AS. They may lead to a non specific damage of the nervous and/or muscular components of the spine in these patients.

Adult↗