Biomedical subjects

N Halagan

Publications and source records attributed to N Halagan.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1989

Attitudes and physical condition of unrelated bone marrow donors immediately after donation.

Annually, over 3000 bone marrow transplants are performed worldwide involving HLA-identical sibling donors. However, only 30 percent of those patients who need a bone marrow transplant have a matched sibling donor. Programs have been developed to provide volunteer unrelated bone marrow donors for patients without sibling donors. Because bone marrow donation requires a high level of altruism, especially on the part of a donor unrelated to the patient, it is important to determine the effect of donation on the donor. Serious medical complications during the collection of marrow from related donors have been reported only rarely, but there have been no reports on the psychosocial and physical effects of the bone marrow donation process on volunteer unrelated bone marrow donors. The first 20 unrelated volunteers who donated bone marrow through the authors' volunteer bone marrow donor program were surveyed. They suffered no serious emotional or physical aftereffects. Seventeen of 20 donors reported that making the decision to donate was easy, and 16 reported making the decision to donate right away. Nine of 20 donors, however, stated that a friend or family member discouraged them from donating. All 20 donors thought that they were well prepared for the donation process. Four donors thought that the donation process required more time than they expected, but four donors thought the reverse. One person thought the process was more painful than they expected; however, 12 found the process to be less painful than expected.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗

PubMed1988

Effectiveness of a regional bone marrow donor program.

Because many potential bone marrow transplant patients lack HLA-matched siblings, there is growing interest in carrying out transplantations using matched, unrelated volunteer donors. We developed a local registry of 2147 informed donors who consented to be listed in the Bone Marrow Donor Registry. This registry was used to carry out 420 donor searches for 351 patients. The initial computer search involved matching for HLA-A and HLA-B locus antigens only because most donors had not been typed for HLA-DR antigens. Depending on the degree of HLA-A and HLA-B antigen mismatching allowed, suitably matched (HLA-DR-identical, mixed lymphocyte culture nonreactive) donors were located for 6% to 16% of patients. This resulted in 13 bone marrow transplants. This study shows that a small, local bone marrow donor registry can locate donors for a few patients; however, a large network involving an expanded number of donors will be necessary to allow an extensive evaluation of unrelated bone marrow transplantation.

Bone Marrow Transplantation↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Development and operation of a program to obtain volunteer bone marrow donors unrelated to the patient.

Because of recent increases in bone marrow transplantation, the lack of available matched sibling donors has become a problem. This study investigated the feasibility of obtaining volunteer bone marrow donors unrelated to the patient. A program was developed to inform potential donors and obtain their consent for listing in a bone marrow donor registry. Sixty-six percent of whole blood or apheresis donors agreed to participate in the program. There were no demographic differences between those who accepted or declined to participate. Religion, experiences with medical practices, and the attitude of the potential donor's spouse were important factors in the decision to participate. A search for donors was initiated for 127 patients. Thirty searches were not completed, primarily because of patient-related problems. A total of 713 HLA-A and -B antigen-identical donors was located for 63 of the 97 (65%) patients. A total of 40 HLA-A, -B, and -DR antigen-identical donors was located for 18 of these 63 patients. Six of these 18 patients then had one or more donors (total, 9) whose lymphocytes did not react in mixed lymphocyte culture. Thus, using the file of 2147 donors, an HLA-identical donor was located for 6 percent of the 97 patients. None of these patients has yet received a transplant; in four cases this was due to patient-related and in two cases donor-related reasons. The cost to establish the donor program averaged $33.46 (1984) per donor for donors already typed for HLA-A and -B antigens. This experience indicated that, given thorough information about bone marrow donation and transplantation, a majority of blood and apheresis donors will volunteer to donate bone marrow, without feeling pressure to do so. A relatively small donor file provided donors for 6 percent of patients. The long-term value of bone marrow transplantation using unrelated donors and the optimum size of the donor file remain to be established.

Adult↗