The role of uncertainty regarding the results of screening immunoassays in blood establishments

Paulo Pereira*, James O. Westgard, Pedro Encarnação, Jerard Seghatchian, Gracinda de Sousa

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The risk of uncertain results in infectious agents' tests is recognized in blood establishments, being particularly evident during the blood donor selection. The current risk-based approaches require risk assessment and "risk-based thinking". Accordingly, the blood establishment should consider the effect of uncertainty in all the technical decisions taken in a screening laboratory. Since the post-transfusion safety is one of the blood establishments' goals, the risk of post-transfusion infection should be evaluated and actions taken to decrease the chance of blood donations validation use false negative results. This article reviews and discusses the sources of uncertainty of infectious agents' reported results in blood establishments. It describes a set of sources of uncertainty that should be considered in screening immunoassay's decisions. The infectious agents' uncertainty concern is critical for reporting reliable results.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)252-255
Number of pages4
JournalTransfusion and Apheresis Science
Volume52
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2015

Keywords

  • Blood donor selection
  • Blood establishments
  • Infectious agents
  • Post-transfusion safety
  • Risk assessment
  • Screening immunoassay

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