This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on ISI (1)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: Dr Vincent and colleagues¹ found that patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) who received transfusions were also at higher risk of mortality, and that this difference persisted even after accounting for differing degrees of organ dysfunction. Neither the authors nor Drs Hébert and Fergusson² in the accompanying Editorial discuss transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) as an explanation for the increased mortality among those who received transfusions. The true incidence of TRALI is unknown, but it is considered to be one of the most common but most underdiagnosed adverse effects of transfusion, particularly in its milder presentations.³ We believe that future research on the clinical consequences of blood transfusion should consider this important and, until recently, overlooked complication of blood transfusion.

The letters of Dr Karkouti and colleagues, and of Mr Rathore and Dr Krumholz, were shown to Dr Vincent and colleagues and to Drs Hébert and Fergusson. Both groups of authors declined to respond to both letters.—ED.

Keyvan Karkouti, MD; W. Scott Beattie, MD; Duminda N. Wijeysundera, MD; Stuart A. McCluskey, MD
Departments of Anesthesia and Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation
University of . . . [Full Text of this Article]

RELATED ARTICLES

Blood Transfusions and Mortality Among Critically Ill Patients
Saif S. Rathore and Harlan M. Krumholz
JAMA. 2003;289(10):1242.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Blood Transfusions and Mortality Among Critically Ill Patients
Syed Ahmed, Yizhak Kupfer, and Sidney Tessler
JAMA. 2003;289(10):1242-1243.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Blood Transfusions and Mortality Among Critically Ill Patients—Reply
Jean-Louis Vincent
JAMA. 2003;289(10):1243.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Anemia and Blood Transfusion in Critically Ill Patients
Jean Louis Vincent, Jean-François Baron, Konrad Reinhart, Luciano Gattinoni, Lambert Thijs, Andrew Webb, Andreas Meier-Hellmann, Guy Nollet, Daliana Peres-Bota, and for the ABC Investigators
JAMA. 2002;288(12):1499-1507.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Red Blood Cell Transfusions in Critically Ill Patients
Paul C. Hébert and Dean A. Fergusson
JAMA. 2002;288(12):1525-1526.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT