Re. Domen, Infectious disease testing related to organ and tissue transplantation: Results from a national laboratory survey, AM J INFECT, 27(3), 1999, pp. 275-278
Background: The purpose of this national survey in the United States was to
determine laboratory practices and policies related to infectious disease
testing of tissue and organ donors.
Methods: Supplementary questions were asked of the laboratories that subscr
ibe: to the College of American Pathologists' 1996 Donor Center (DC-B) and
Viral Markers (W1-B and W2-B) surveys. Only the laboratories that perform i
nfectious disease testing for the purposes of organ and tissue transplantat
ion were asked to respond to the survey.
Results: A total of 1563 laboratories participated in the 1996 DC-B, W1-B,
and W2-B surveys. A total of 203 (13.0%) laboratories indicated that infect
ious disease testing was performed for purposes of tissue and organ transpl
antation. The majority (81.1%) of respondents were hospital-based laborator
ies or regional blood centers. Variances existed in policies regarding type
of testing, turnaround times, maintenance of frozen samples, confirmatory
resting of positive screening tests, and the reporting of results.
Conclusions: Various policies and procedures are practiced by laboratories
that perform infectious disease testing related to transplantation, and sta
ndard guidelines do not currently exist. More data is needed to assess the
variability of infectious disease testing of organ donors, as well as the n
eed for standard guidelines.