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Background: To preserve the umbilical cord blood (UCB), the volume containing the cells must be reduced before freezing, but the quality, quantity and functionality of the cells has to be preserved during this procedure. The aim is to compare the performance of two different techniques for volume reduction., Methods: A semiautomatic system and an automatic system were compared as two different UCB volume reduction techniques. Total nucleated cell (TNC) counts and viability were measured before and after volume reduction. The CD34+ cell counts also were measured., Results: Seventy units of cord blood cells (UCB) were collected. Thirty-three volume reduction procedures were performed by semiautomatic system and thirty-seven by automatic system. The volume recovered and the CD34+ count in both techniques was similar, although the viability differed slightly (1% higher by Optipress II)., Conclusions: The semiautomatic and automatic techniques are suitable to reduce volumes of UCB units.

Background: The American trypanosomiasis is the second parasitic disease in importance after paludism and one of the main mechanism of transmission is a blood transfusion. Our objective was to measure the effect the Tripanosoma Cruzi screening test in blood banks in the Mexican Institute of Social Security., Methods: Information was obtained from each unit of blood collected. The Tripanosoma cruzi prevalence was calculated only in samples with double reactivity in the blood banks., Results: Of 71 blood banks, only 26 had been doing T. Cruzi screen; after implementation of integrated services 55 are doing the screening. There were 935 donors with double reactivity to the T. Cruzi test from 230,074 samples. The national prevalence was 0.406%. The seroprevalence was 0.013% to 3.118%., Conclusions: The screening of the T. cruzi improved the detection and increased the safety and the prevention of its transmission by blood transfusion.

Introduction: There are no records on the prevalence of infection by HCV in Mexican population. The central area of Mexico is a highly dense demographic zone and is the influence area of the second blood bank in Latin America in terms of affluence., Material and Methods: We prospectively studied the prevalence and genotypes of HCV infection in 5105 individuals attending the Central Blood Bank of Centro Médico Nacional La Raza regardless if they were accepted or rejected as donors. We applied a quimiolumiscence assay as a screening test. A recombinant immunoassay (RIBA) and a qualitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were performed as confirmatory tests and to detect viremia, respectively. Virus genotype was identified by means of a Line Immuno Probe Assay in PCR positive samples., Results: The overall prevalence of HCV infection was 0.195% (10/5105). Viremia was detected in 90% of the subjects. The prevalence of accepted donors (0.087%) was significantly lower (p = 0.017) than that of the rejected ones (0.421%). Among viremic subjects, 60 % were infected with genotype 2 and 40% with a subtype combination (a/b) of genotype 1., Discussion: The prevalence of HCV infection in our population was significantly lower than the world mean prevalence estimated in 3 %. A higher prevalence of genotype 2 in asymptomatic individuals contrasts with previous studies with a selected population where genotype 1 prevailed.