Readers, Authors and affiliated Societies (the SIMTI, AICE, HDTM, SETS and SISET) wish to express their gratitude to Giancarlo M. Liumbruno for his work and commitment as Editor-in-Chief of Blood Transfusion (BT) from 2015 to 2019. Working together with the Senior Editor-in-Chief, the Associate Editors, the International Editorial Board and the Peer Reviewers, Giancarlo achieved highly significant results in terms of the journal’s visibility and the high scientific quality of the papers published.
From 2015 to 2019, 28 issues of BT were published, comprising, among others, 174 original articles, 79 reviews, and 11 guidelines/recommendations. The estimated number of readers per issue, currently stands at approximately 3,000 and the Impact Factor has reached the significant figure of 3.352.
Taking over the role of Editor-in-Chief of such a successful journal will not be an easy task. Indeed, the high quality of the papers published in the last five years has shed a light on important areas of transfusion medicine, haemostasis and thrombosis. A number of original articles studied old and emerging infections in blood donors and their implications for transfusion safety, both in high and low income countries. In response to this ever-present concern for all transfusion specialists, a number of authors presented data on different aspects of pathogen inactivation, including patient safety, techniques, cost effectiveness and health technology assessment. Remaining in the area of blood donors, several papers addressed issues of blood donor selection criteria, iron status, their motivation, and the need to educate donor center staff, as well as the impact of European Union Directives. The Immunohaematology section of our journal saw the publication of many papers on molecular typing of diverse blood groups and how these new approaches have, on the one hand, offered insights into the structure of blood groups and, on the other, how they are changing the concept of donor-recipient compatibility. Moreover, a number of articles provided data on the association between ABO and fertility, longevity, and some neurodegenerative and neoplastic diseases. As far as blood components and conservation are concerned, in the past 5 years, BT has published many articles on the storage lesion and on the most up-to-date techniques employed for its analysis and understanding. In addition, many articles have discussed plasma fractionation and the clinical evidence of the use of plasma-derived products. Regenerative medicine is a vigorous and exciting area of Medicine, and BT has given considerable space to articles related to different non-transfusion (topical) blood products and their use in ophthalmology, dermatology, and orthopaedic and dental surgery. As readers are well aware, Patient Blood Management has grown considerably in the past few years, and BT has provided us with many original articles, reviews and some practical guidelines on this rapidly evolving field. In the more “classical” but pivotal area of Transfusion Medicine, our journal has published a number of articles and reviews on the appropriate use of blood products, transfusion thresholds, complications of transfusion, as well as on transfusion approaches to specific diseases such as acute haemolytic anaemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, beta thalassaemia and sickle cell disease. A number of articles have been dedicated to therapeutic aphaeresis, transfusion protocols for transplanted patients and the immunohaematological complications of haematopoietic stem cell and solid organ transplantation. Issues related to cord blood banking, such as costs and novel uses of cord blood units, have also been discussed in BT.
Experts in haemostasis and thrombosis have been very active contributors to BT, publishing numerous original articles, reviews, recommendations and position papers on diverse topics such as novel treatment strategies for haemophilia, including patients with inhibitors, management of patients with acquired haemophilia, the evolution of anticoagulant therapy, the impact of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), including treatment of bleeding complications, the role of coagulation testing in the management of these patients and the alternatives for DOAC reversal.
As the reader can well imagine, this bird’s-eye view of the past 5 years can not in any way be exhaustive, but it does help to remind us of how dynamic, vibrant and multifaceted our fields of interest are.
Many aspects have been addressed, several problems have been solved, but many questions still remain.
As Editor-in-Chief, my aim is to work closely with the Editorial Board, the affiliated Societies, the International Editorial Board and the Editorial Office to offer the widest possible collaboration with Authors, whose main tasks are to provide answers for today’s questions, and posing new ones for the future.
Indeed, interesting times ahead for Blood Transfusion!