Towards a sheep model of transfusion reactions

A pilot study to assess the suitability of an ovine model for the investigation of adverse transfusion
 


Funding year: 2009



Amount funded: $49,042



Lead researcher:
Associate Professor John Fraser, Director Critical Care Research Group, The Prince Charles Hospital



Research team:
Ms Lin Fung, Senior Scientist & Team Leader, Research and Development Laboratory
Dr Kathryn Colebourne, Medical Officer, Donor and Product Safety, Australian Red Cross Blood Service
Associate Professor Peter Wood, Senior staff haematologist, Princess Alexandra Hospital
Mr John-Paul Tung, Research Scientist, Research and Development Laboratory, Australian Red Cross Blood Service
Dr Adrian Barnett, Senior Research Fellow at Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, QUT, Kelvin Grove



Location of research:
Medical Engineering Research Facility (MERF), The Prince Charles Hospital
Research and Development Laboratory, Australian Red Cross Blood Service, Kelvin Grove



Project description:
Approximately 40% of patients undergoing cardiac surgery at TPCH will require a blood transfusion. Following surgery, these patients are more likely to suffer from infection and are more likely to die than patients who do not receive a blood transfusion. However, as we do not understand why the majority of these reactions occur, we cannot prevent them.

Therefore, our aim is to create a sheep model of blood transfusion which will help us to study this problem, and eventually help us to develop ways to reduce the risk of infection and death. This will make blood transfusion and major surgery safer.

This project will help us initiate a sheep model of blood transfusion, and with that data we will progress to further studies which we hope will eventually result in reduced risk of major surgery as well as reduced hospital length of stay.