Infectious disease testing related to organ and tissue transplantation: results from a national laboratory survey

The purpose of this national survey in the United States was to determine laboratory practices and policies related to infectious disease testing of tissue and organ donors.

Supplementary questions were asked of the laboratories that subscribe to the College of American Pathologists' 1996 Donor Center (DC-B) and Viral Markers (W1-B and W2-B) surveys. Only the laboratories that perform infectious disease testing for the purposes of organ and tissue transplantation were asked to respond to the survey.

A total of 1563 laboratories participated in the 1996 DC-B, W1-B, and W2-B surveys. A total of 203 (13.0%) laboratories indicated that infectious disease testing was performed for purposes of tissue and organ transplantation. The majority (81. 1%) of respondents were hospital-based laboratories or regional blood centers. Variances existed in policies regarding type of testing, turnaround times, maintenance of frozen samples, confirmatory testing of positive screening tests, and the reporting of results.

Various policies and procedures are practiced by laboratories that perform infectious disease testing related to transplantation, and standard guidelines do not currently exist. More data is needed to assess the variability of infectious disease testing of organ donors, as well as the need for standard guidelines.