Compatibility Health Dictionary

The procedure by which malignant or defective bone marrow in a patient is replaced with normal bone marrow. Sometimes the patient’s own marrow is used (when the disease is in remission); after storage using tissue-freezing technique (cryopreservation) it is reinfused into the patient once the diseased marrow has been treated (autologous transplant). More commonly, a transplant uses marrow from a donor whose tissue has been matched for compatibility. The recipient’s marrow is destroyed with CYTOTOXIC drugs before transfusion. The recipient is initially nursed in an isolated environment to reduce the risk of infection.

Disorders that can be helped or even cured include certain types of LEUKAEMIA and many inherited disorders of the immune system (see IMMUNITY).... bone marrow transplant

A transmission of blood from donor to recipient subject to check for compatibility (ABO groups) and freedom from HIV, hepatitis and other viruses.

“There are as many different bloods as there are different people,” wrote Dr Alonzo J. Shadman. In his practice as a physician and surgeon he claimed he never lost a case for lack of blood and never employed blood transfusion or drugs. For bloodlessness he advised normal saline to give the heart sufficient fluid- load to work on.

Normal saline solution he used was with 2 teaspoons table salt to one of sodium bicarbonate in two quarts (approximately 2 litres) water. Normal saline keeps the blood vessels “open”.

Dr Shadman continues: “Where infection has occurred, expressed fresh juice from the flowering Marigold (Calendula) is mixed with sufficient alcohol to prevent fermentation. It should not be used full strength but diluted one part to ten parts water. Any left after the emergency should be thrown away.” (The Layman Speaks, April 1963, p. 137-139)

Garlic. Study showed a marked reduction in platelet aggregation over a 5-week period in a group of patients with normally increased tendency to aggregation. (Dr F. Jung, Department of Clinical Haemostasiology and Transfusion Medicine, Saarland University) ... blood transfusion

A procedure to determine compatibility between the blood of a person requiring a blood transfusion and that of a donor.

Red blood cells from one person are combined with serum from the other.

Clumping of red blood cells indicates the presence of antibodies, showing the blood is not compatible.... cross-matching

n. the form of *compatibility that depends upon tissue components, mainly specific glycoprotein antigens in cell membranes. A high degree of histocompatibility is necessary for a tissue graft or organ transplant to be successful. —histocompatible adj.... histocompatibility

n. see compatibility.... incompatibility

determination of the *HLA profiles of tissues to assess their compatibility. It is the most important predictor of success or failure of a transplant operation.... tissue typing

n. the implantation of an organ or tissue (see graft) from one part of the body to another or from one person (the donor) to another (the recipient). Success for transplantation depends on the degree of compatibility between donor and graft: it is greatest for *autografts (self-grafts), less for *allografts (between individuals of the same species), and least for *xenografts (between different species; see xenotransplantation). Skin and bone grafting are examples of transplantation techniques in the same individual. A kidney transplant involves the grafting of a healthy kidney from a donor to replace the diseased kidney of the recipient: renal transplantation is the second commonest example of human transplant surgery using allografts (after corneal grafts – see keratoplasty). Bone-marrow, blood-stem-cell, heart, heart–lung, pancreatic, and liver transplants are also very successful. Patients have undergone laryngeal transplantation following *laryngectomy. Transplanting organs or tissues between individuals is a difficult procedure because the recipient’s immune system perceives the transplant as a foreign object and rejects it. Special treatment (e.g. with *immunosuppressant drugs) is needed to prevent transplant rejection, and the less common but equally devastating effects of an attack by the graft’s immune cells on the host.

Ethical questions arise over donated organs. If the donor is living, is the organ properly a *gift? If the donor has recently died, how has the death been judged and has *consent been given explicitly by the patient or surviving relatives (opting in) or is it assumed if the donor has not forbidden it (opting out)?... transplantation