Anti-C3d Monoclonal antibody, clone B360

Background. In 2013, the World Health Organization reported a shortage of 17 million red blood cell units, a number that remains growing. Acts to relieve this shortage have primarily focused on allogeneic blood collection. Nevertheless, autologous transfusion can partially alleviate the current pressure and dependence on blood banking systems. To achieve this, current gold standard autotransfusion devices should be complemented with widely available, cost-efficient, and time-efficient devices. The novel HemoClear cell salvage device (HemoClear BV, Zwolle, Netherlands), a gravity-driven microfilter, potentially is widely employable. We evaluated its performance in the cardiac postoperative setting compared to the centrifugal XTRA (TM) autotransfusion device.Methods. In a split-unit study (n = 18), shed blood collected 18 hours after cardiothoracic surgery was divided into two equal volumes. One-half was processed by the XTRA (TM) device and the other with the HemoClear blood separation system. In this paired set-up, equal washing volumes were used for both methods. Washing effectivity and cellular recovery were determined by measuring of complete blood count, free hemoglobin, complement C3, complement C4, and D-dimer in both concentrate as filtrate. Also, processing times and volumes were evaluated.Results. The HemoClear and XTRA (TM) devices showed equal effectiveness in concentrating erythrocytes and leucocytes. Both methods reduced complement C3, complement C4, and D-dimer by >= 90%. The centrifugal device reduced solutes more significantly by up to 99%. Free hemoglobin load was reduced to 12.9% and 15.5% by the XTRA (TM) and HemoClear, respectively.Conclusion. The HemoClear device effectively produced washed concentrated red blood cells comparably to the conventional centrifugal XTRA (TM) autotransfusion device. Although the centrifugal XTRA (TM) device achieved a significantly higher reduction in contaminants, the HemoClear device achieved acceptable blood quality and seems promising in settings where gold standard cell savers are unaffordable or unpractical.

We present a detailed analysis of a long-duration flare associated with a coronal mass ejection (CME) event that occurred on 27 January 2012 in the active region (AR) 11402. We analyze the kinematics of the CME and the close relationship between the flare, radio burst, and CME. We used STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory)/EUVI A (Extreme Ultraviolet Imager) and white light data from STEREO (COR1 A and COR2 A) and LASCO (Large Angle and Spectrometric COronagraph) (C2/C3) coronagraphs, and X-ray data from the GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) spacecraft. The height of the CME is measured using the Graduated Cylindrical Shell (GCS) model. Our results show that: i) the speed of the CME (1460 km/s at 2.54 R-circle dot) is comparable to the speed of the type II radio burst (1581 km/s), ii) the height of the type II radio burst is lower than that of the CME leading edge, iii) the CME acceleration phase is found to be related to the rise time of the flare and its propagation phase is related to the decay phase of the flare, iv) the type II radio burst origin is likely to be near the CME region where a CME-streamer interaction takes place around 1.6 R-circle dot, and v) the sequence of events and the CME kinematics show a close association between the CME and type II radio emissions.