Word: albumin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...this procedure, hemoglobin-rich blood is pumped unit by unit from a vein and replaced by an equal number of units of a nonblood fluid to expand the volume to normal; the patient's own drawn blood is held for use after surgery. In another technique, doctors may use albumin, a protein found in plasma that is acceptable to many who refuse transfusions on religious grounds, to maintain or increase blood volume, or to manage an underlying medical condition. Says Shander: "They used to tell us, 'Give 'em a couple of bottles of blood--it won't hurt...
...says the culprit may be cow's milk, and the process a bizarre case of mistaken identity. Doctors at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto found that the diabetics had a much higher than normal level of antibodies to a protein in cow's milk called bovine serum albumin; their bodies have targeted the protein as an invader to be destroyed. By a terrible coincidence, a section of this milk protein is almost identical to a protein on the surface of insulin-producing cells. When these people are sensitized to milk, the theory goes, they are also sensitized...