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Background. The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic caused a major impact on blood donation process and supply globally. A lockdown management procedure was launched nationally in Saudi Arabia to manage this global health crisis. The main aim of this study was to determine the effect of COVID-19 lockdown on blood donation services and supply in different regions of Saudi Arabia. Study Design and Methods. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted in the blood bank centers of 5 major cities including Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Hail, and Jizan in Saudi Arabia. Demographic and blood characteristics were retrieved from the first 6 months of 2019 (January–June) and compared to the same period of 2020. Results. Our findings showed variation in the characteristics of blood donation and supply among the centers surveyed, as some of these centers were adversely affected, while others showed an increase in the availability of blood products during the pandemic. For example, Jeddah’s center was significantly affected by COVID-19 lockdown whereas Hail’s center showed a significant increase in the analyzed characteristics of blood donation services in 2020 compared to 2019. Overall, there was no major difference among the surveyed centers between 2020 and 2019, and this might be due to the effective management of blood supply and transfusion. Discussion. Although blood supply and transfusion practice was slightly affected at various degree among the surveyed centers, the whole process did not show a significant effect on the overall outcome. This is in fact due to the proper preparedness, management of blood requirements and supplies, and efficient response of the surveyed centers in Saudi Arabia.

To elicit knowledge of breast cancer, perception of occurrence, and behavior in relation to breast self-examination (BSE).A cross-sectional survey was carried out at the Department of Pathology, Medical College, University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for local occupants from Hail city and its rural neighborhood between September 2010 and February 2012. A personal interview-administered descriptive questionnaire and both descriptive and inferential statistics were used.A total of 1000 participants agreed to be involved, out of which 87.7% were females, 7.2% were males and 5.1% had undisclosed gender. The age range for participants was 12-66 years. Out of all participants, 44% did not know that breast cancer is an abnormal growth and 78% failed to recognise its multi-factorial nature, with Increased age being the least recognised single risk factor 4.8%. Scores showed that 61.5% had a low level of breast cancer related knowledge. Out of the participants who knew of someone who had breast cancer 73%, 50.1% said the disease was discovered at a Late stage mainly by Chance. Data for BSE indicated that 50.1% of female participants16 years old did not practice BSE, and Fear was the main declared perceived reason.This study demonstrates a low level of fundamental knowledge of breast cancer and fear to practice BSE.

To evaluate the association between autoimmune thrombocytopenia with other autoimmune disorders, to show if they are different autoimmune diseases or one disease with different presentations at the same time, and to study the effect of treatment on platelet count in different thyroid condition.In this retrospective study, we included 141 patients with thrombocytopenic purpura. The result of thyroid function test, thyroid autoantibodies, Coombs' reactivity, anti-nuclear antibody, and double-stranded DNA were analyzed. This study was conducted in the Clinical Hematology Department, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia between June 2003 and August 2010.There were 51 (36.2%) patients with laboratory evidence of autoimmune disease, 13 (9.2%) with hypothyroidism, and 6 (4.3%) with hyperthyroidism. In addition, 5 (3.5%) patients showed laboratory evidence of Evan syndrome and 3 (2.1%) patients had isolated positive thyroid antibodies. There was non-significant difference (p=0.61) in platelets count after one month of treatment of patients with different thyroid condition.Immune thrombocytopenia is associated with evidence of different autoimmune disease or a combination of them, which may appear at presentation or during the course of disease giving evidence that they are different manifestations of a single disease. Screening patients for antithyroid antibodies would identify a patient at risk of developing overt thyroid disease. These patients may be further screened with a thyroid-stimulating hormone assay to detect subclinical thyroid disease.