HealthCare News
Caution Urged on Transfusions in Some Heart PatientsTransfused patients were more likely to die or have a heart attack within 30 days than those who did not get blood, according to the review that analyzed data from three studies of more than 24,000 patients. The danger appears to be concentrated in patients with moderately high anemia, said Dr. Sunil V. Rao, assistant professor of medicine at the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, N.C., and lead author of the report. The measure he used is hematocrit, the percentage of whole blood that consists of red cells. A normal hematocrit is in the neighborhood of 40, Rao said. Anemia is a lower-than-normal number of red blood cells. Read entire article... | 
