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Transfusion Medicine Research
Transfusion Related Infections in Pediatric Populations (TRIPPS)
and Related Transfusion Medicine Studies
TRIPPS, a longitudinal study of pediatric transfusion recipients which is now in its eighth year, is funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). This study is a collaborative project with the Division of Transfusion Medicine (DTM) of the NIH where similar studies have been ongoing for 20 or more years. TRIPPS is one of several studies at Children’s National which have been focused on adverse consequences of transfusion, including studies on Hepatitis C and HIV. TRIPPS is the only study in the world that monitors patients pre-transfusion and post-transfusion for infections and immunological complications. A unique aspect of the study is its ability to link the recipient (patient) with all donations of blood received by that patient. In this way, any abnormal post-transfusion test can be directly linked to a specific donor(s). TRIPPS can then mathematically model the implications of the abnormal test to the broader population of transfusion recipients as well as analysis of specific infections and a complication called post-transfusion microchimerism.
While all blood transfused as part of TRIPPS is tested for known infectious agents according to federal standards, new threats to the blood supply can emerge. TRIPPS uses ultrasensitive molecular and immunological testing and can identify these potentially dangerous diseases before they are recognized in the general population.
TRIPPS recruits children who are undergoing cardiovascular, orthopaedic, neurosurgical and other invasive surgeries requiring blood, as well as children with hemolytic anemias and those suffering acute traumatic injury. Families who consent need to commit to periodic serial blood specimen collection either at Children’s National Medical Center - Sheikh Zayed Campus for Advanced Children's Medicine, one of Children’s Regional Outpatient Centers, or by their pediatrician.
Our Transfusion Medicine research program permits us to evaluate other issues related to transfusion that extend beyond infectious complications.
- Identification of parvo virus B19 transmission through asymptomatic donor transfusion
- Quantification of post-transfusion microchimerism in children undergoing cardiovascular surgery procedures
- Justification for blood/blood product use in ECMO
- Immunogenetics of alloantibody formation in sickle cell disease
- Molecular genetics and blood groups in sickle cell disease
- Mortality and morbidity associated with transfusion in pediatric intensive care units, a multi-institutional study
- Transfusion-related device development and effect of devices on transfused blood
- DEHP, bisphenol-A, and other plasticizers leaching from blood bags: endocrine disruptors
Faculty who study transfusion medicine
For more information about this research program, contact Naomi L.C. Luban, MD.
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