Transfusion Medicine, Therapeutic Apheresis, and Cellular Therapy

Transfusion Medicine
The goal of the transfusion medicine service is to provide safe and reliable blood components to our patients. The laboratory is regulated by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the College of American Pathologists (CAP), and the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB). The laboratory provides testing and expertise to ensure the safety and compatibility of blood products while also providing careful oversight of their use to manage this scarce resource. In addition to collecting and testing blood from donors, our test menu includes, but is not limited to, the following:
• ABO/Rh typing on donors/recipients
• Antibody screening
• Antibody indentification
• Direct antiglobulin test
• Indirect antiglobulin test
• Alloantibody titers
• Transfusion reaction work-up
• Fetal RBC screen
• Red cell phenotyping and genotyping

Therapeutic Apheresis
The therapeutic apheresis service offers a variety of procedures, mostly for neurologic, hematologic, and transplant patients. We perform over 4,000 apheresis procedures annually for both inpatients and outpatients. Listed below are apheresis procedures that we perform regularly:
• Plasma exchange
• Red cell exchange
• Leukocytapheresis
• Thrombocytapheresis
• Lipid apheresis

Cellular Therapy
Cellular therapy refers to the collection of stem cells for stem cell transplantation or the collection of other immune function cells for their manipulation and re-infusion in certain conditions. The cellular therapy service functions as a partnership with Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. These stem cells and other immune function cells are collected from the patients themselves or from closely matched designated donors.

The Transfusion Medicine, Therapeutic Apheresis and Cellular Therapy section also provides consultation services and participates in education and research activities. Consultations are provided for blood management situations, such as proper selection and use of blood products, management of difficult transfusion requirements, transfusion reactions, and donor selection. Education is provided to physicians, nurses, residents, and medical students. We also provide advanced training in our one-year fellowship program. Additionally, the service is involved with a variety of research projects in collaboration with our hematology, neurology, neurosurgery, and transplant colleagues.

For more information, please contact:
Transfusion Medicine/Apheresis 
Office: 713.363.9845

Our Transfusion Medicine faculty:

Christopher Leveque, MD
Office: 713.441.4858
cleveque@houstonmethodist.org