Dr. Edward Wong

Edward Wong, MD , assistant professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, is an nationally recognized expert in pediatric transfusion therapy.He is director of hematology, director of the clinical apheresis service and associate director of transfusion medicine in the Division of Laboratory Medicine at Children's National Medical Center.Dr. Wong joined the staff of Children's National Medical Center in 2000 after completing a transfusion medicine fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.He earned his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis and a combined masters and medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.After completing a residency in clinical pathology at the Barnes/Jewish Hospitals in St. Louis, he completed fellowship training in transfusion medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and at the National Institutes of Health.Dr. Wong has been involved in the evaluation of new automated hematologic parameters involved stem cell mobilization and iron deficiency; lead testing in blood donors, novel applications of therapeutic apheresis and transfusion efficacy of new blood products.He has published 16 articles and 52 abstracts and has authored or co-authored 12 book chapters, section editor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 1st edition and co-editor of Pediatric Reference Intervals, 5th edition.

Vice Chair: Edward Wong, MD

OPHS Manager

said Dr. Edward Wong of the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Children's National Medical Center "We also assumed that parental donations would be the safest blood of all."

According to Dr. Wong, this is the first study of its kind specifically looking at parents as direct donors for their children.His research team found that 9 out of 100 first time parental donations had infectious disease markers.The researchers then examined whether known factors such as age and socioeconomic status influenced the results; no difference in age or socioeconomic status was observed between parents and community donors.

"Clearly most of these parents were simply trying to do the best thing for their child.Many of them did not realize that their blood would need to be discarded."said Dr. Wong "Parental incentives to donate to their children may now need to be considered a risk factor when donating."

Dr. Wong suggests other large-scale studies now need to be done to confirm these findings.

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Children's National Medical Center, located in Washington, D.C., is a leader in the development of innovative new treatments for childhood illness and injury.Among the top pediatric hospitals in America, CNMC has been serving the nation's children for over 130 years.Visit our web site at www.dcchildrens.com.

Edward Wong, MD, assistant professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, is an nationally recognized expert in pediatric transfusion therapy.He is director of hematology, director of the clinical apheresis service and associate director of transfusion medicine in the Division of Laboratory Medicine at Children's National Medical Center.Dr. Wong joined the staff of Children's National Medical Center in 2000 after completing a transfusion medicine fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.He earned his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis and a combined masters and medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.After completing a residency in clinical pathology at the Barnes/Jewish Hospitals in St. Louis, he completed fellowship training in transfusion medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and at the National Institutes of Health.Dr. Wong has been involved in the evaluation of new automated hematologic parameters involved stem cell mobilization and iron deficiency; lead testing in blood donors, novel applications of therapeutic apheresis and transfusion efficacy of new blood products.He has published 16 articles and 52 abstracts and has authored or co-authored 12 book chapters, section editor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 1st edition and co-editor of Pediatric Reference Intervals, 5th edition.

Edward C. C. Wong, MD Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology Children's National Medical Center

It may be that in their desire to do the right thing, parents may overlook past risky behavior or infections that would make their blood unsafe, said Edward Wong, lead author of the study, and associate director of the blood bank at the Children's Hospital National Medical Center in Washington, DC.

These parents aren't willfully lying, he told Reuters Health; rather, "They're sort of conning themselves," Wong said.

He and colleagues surveyed 7,588 potential donors from 1997 to 2000.Each donor must respond to a questionnaire, similar to those given at community blood banks, but with a few extra questions designed to screen out some genetic disorders, Wong said.Based on the results of the questionnaire alone, 14% of the parents were told they should not give blood.

Donated blood is tested for a number of problems, including infectious diseases such as hepatitis B and C, HIV and syphilis, as well as some neurological and genetic disorders.

The researchers found that 9 of every 100 parents--or about 8%--had given blood that was unsafe to transfuse into their children."That's quite high," Wong said.

Because he and colleagues wanted to see if first-time parental donors were less educated or younger than community donors, they looked at age and socioeconomic status of the parents.But they found no significant difference from the demographics of the community donors.

That suggests "there is something else going on," said Wong.He and his colleagues concluded that parents were overlooking risky behavior because they felt driven to do what they could to help a sick child.

Wong said he did not expect the study results to change how his blood bank screens donors.But, he said, if parents were informed of the study, it might cause them to think twice before rushing to donate.

Copyright 2000-2001 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

It may be that in their desire to do the right thing, parents may overlook past risky behavior or infections that would make their blood unsafe, said Edward Wong, lead author of the study, and associate director of the blood bank at the Children's Hospital National Medical Center in Washington, DC.

These parents aren't willfully lying, he told Reuters Health; rather, "They're sort of conning themselves," Wong said.

He and colleagues surveyed 7,588 potential donors from 1997 to 2000.Each donor must respond to a questionnaire, similar to those given at community blood banks, but with a few extra questions designed to screen out some genetic disorders, Wong said.Based on the results of the questionnaire alone, 14% of the parents were told they should not give blood.

Donated blood is tested for a number of problems, including infectious diseases such as hepatitis B and C, HIV and syphilis, as well as some neurological and genetic disorders.

The researchers found that 9 of every 100 parents--or about 8%--had given blood that was unsafe to transfuse into their children."That's quite high," Wong said.

Because he and colleagues wanted to see if first-time parental donors were less educated or younger than community donors, they looked at age and socioeconomic status of the parents.But they found no significant difference from the demographics of the community donors.

That suggests "there is something else going on," said Wong.He and his colleagues concluded that parents were overlooking risky behavior because they felt driven to do what they could to help a sick child.

Wong said he did not expect the study results to change how his blood bank screens donors.But, he said, if parents were informed of the study, it might cause them to think twice before rushing to donate.

Copyright 2000-2001 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved.Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

Ed Wong, MD, director of hematology in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC, also recently purchased a new hematology analyzer."The more modern instrumentation available today has improved on original designs," Dr. Wong says, "and we wanted to take advantage of that to see if we could improve patient care."Many contemporary instruments "offer a lot in improved white cell, red cell, and platelet analysis," he notes.

Dr. Wong is satisfied with the instrument he chose, the Roche Sysmex XE 2100."We now have an automated machine that can do everything we want in terms of reticulocyte and platelet counts," he says.It also satisfies the needs of his medical center's bone marrow transplantation and hematology-oncology programs.
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Dr. Wong says that the manual differential rate at his hospital ranged between 50 and 60 percent."We think we can get it down to 35 percent or so with our new instrument," he says.Because the Sysmex XE 2100 has been online for only a few months, however, he doesn't know what the actual figure will be.
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Says Dr. Wong: "Newer machines can quantitate NRBCs and correct the WBC count.
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Dr. Wong is using a new parameter on the Sysmex XE 2100 that measures a subpopulation, called hematopoietic progenitor cells, or HPC, that resembles or correlates with CD34-positive stem cells."I think hematopoietic progenitor cells is a misnomer," he says."Further work is necessary to clarify what these cells' characteristics are."Nonetheless, he finds them useful in timing apheresis collections, because quantitation of true CD34-positive stem cells requires a flow cytometer with trained technical staff.

Edward C. Wong, M.D

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