Journal Club: The BEST criteria improve sensitivity for detecting positive cultures in residual blood components cultured in suspected septic transfusion reactions

Presented by:

Dr. Valerie Arsenault
Transfusion Medicine Physician Trainee
University of Toronto

Objectives:

1.  Outline the septic transfusion reaction.
2.  Review the concepts of sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of a test.
3.  Critically appraise a recently published article.

Reference:

1.  Shih A et al.  The BEST criteria improve sensitivity for detecting positive cultures in residual blood components cultured in suspected septic transfusion reactions. Transfusion 2019;00;1-9.

Note:  The session is a self-approved group learning activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification program of The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

To register for the LearnTransfusion series, send an email to learn.transfusion@blood.ca with  “Weekly Transfusion Medicine Seminars” in the subject line. Include your name and complete e-mail address in the body of the e-mail, and confirm that you would like to register for the LearnTransfusion series. You will then receive weekly email notifications of upcoming series events with details on how to join the webinars (e.g., call-in number and a link to register for the webinar).

The LearnTransfusion series is the seminar component of the Areas of Focused Competency (AFC)-Diploma Program in Transfusion Medicine. The series, organized by Canadian Blood Services is also open to all practitioners in the field of Transfusion Medicine. Through a series of regular webinars, trainees and practitioners are exposed to various scientific, technical and clinical aspects of transfusion medicine.