By KUNA,
Washington : The use of artificial blood, commonly used to treat trauma and surgical patients frequently use in the developing world and by the military, have lead to 30 percent increased risk of death and a three-fold increase of heart attack, according to a report on Monday.
According to the report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the development of blood substitutes, known as hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers, which has the same oxygen carrying protein found in red blood cells, was linked to a significantly higher risk of heart attack and death in surgical, trauma, and stroke patients.
Artificial blood is a liquid that has a long shelf-life, does not need refrigeration and does not need to be matched to a person’s blood type.
Researchers based their findings on the analysis of 16 published and unpublished clinical trials of five types artificial blood used to treat 3,711 patients, which they found were lacking in some or all important steps, such as the potential serious adverse reactions in all the patients.
There were a total of 164 deaths among patients treated with artificial blood, and 123 deaths among patients in the control group.
Overall, the products were linked with a 30 percent increased risk of deaths. There were a total of 59 heart attacks reported among patients injected with the artificial blood, compared to 16 reported by the control groups, which suggests a 2.7 percent increased risk in heart attack in patients receiving the blood substitute, according to researchers.
More research needs to done on the risks associated with the use of artificial blood, particularly on why there is an increased of heart attacks, researchers said, also pointing out earlier animal studies that found blood substitutes caused blood vessels to constrict and kidney dysfunctions.
The researchers pointed their fingers at both the Food and Drug Administration, which allows patients to be treated with artificial blood in emergency situations without their informed consent, and the manufactures of blood substitutes for downplaying risks and withholding trial results that roved their products posed serious health risks.
However, one manufacturer, Northfield Laboratories, makers of the blood substitute PolyHeme, described the report’s analysis of previous test trials is inaccurate and “not designed to fully examine the risks and benefits of a particular product”, in a statement.
The company said it would submit trial data this week to a federal panel at the National Institute of Health to discuss blood substitute safety.