Robert M. Winslow – författare

Blood substitutes are solutions designed for use in patients who need blood transfusions, but for whom whole blood is not available, or is not safe. This interest has intensified in the wake of the AIDS and hepatitis C epidemics. Blood Substitutes describes the rationale, current approaches, clinical efficacy, and design issues for all blood substitutes now in clinical trials. The many summary diagrams and tables help make the book accessible to readers such as surgeons and blood bankers, who have less technical expertise than the biochemists and hematologists who are designing and testing blood substitutes.* Includes chapters necessary to the understanding of blood substitutes, including history, toxicity, physiology, and clinical applications* Presents detailed descriptions of the various products that have been developed and have advanced to clinical trials, and some that are in earlier states of development

This book is not a "proceedings" volume. Rather the chapters are essays by experts in the field of blood substitutes, invited by the editors to con­ tribute to the 1996 "Current Issues in Blood Substitutes Research and Development" course given in San Diego, March 18-21. The contributors were selected because of their expertise in areas deemed by the editors to be critical to the advancement of the field. The course, as in past years, is heavily influenced by feedback from par­ ticipants, and by research in this and related fields. In addition to the didactic lectures (for which these chapters are the foundation), the course also offers the opportunity for presentation of research reports, progress reports from the various companies currently commercializing products, and round table discussions of selected subjects. Thus, we are grateful to past participants for their helpful comments. Production of a book, especially on a short timeline, is not an easy feat.

This volume contains a collection of essays by selected authors who are active in the field of blood substitutes research or closely allied disciplines. These essays were delivered as lectures by the authors at the second annual "Current Issues in Blood Substitute Research and Development - 1995" course sponsored jointly by the Departments of Medicine and Bioengineer­ ing, University of California, San Diego, the National Institutes of Health (NHLBI), and the U.S. Army on March 30, 31, and April 1, 1995 in San Diego. This course had three goals: to present fundaniental discussions of scientific issues critical to further development of artificial oxygen carriers, to provide academicians a forum to discuss their current research, and to provide the companies involved in developing products the opportunity to update the audience on their progress. The organization owes much to the solicited comments of the attendees of the 1994 course. We would like especially to thank the U.S. Army, particularly through the efforts of COL John Hess, who provided significant funding to make publication of this volume possible. In addition, a number of the participating companies provided additional financial support to offset the costs of the course. These include Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp., Hemosol, Nippon Oil and Fat, Northfield Laboratories, and Ortho Biotech.