International forum from Afghanistan. Editorial.

摘要

In this issue we have a very interesting International Forum from Afghanistan, a country of over 28 million people. The paper by Cheraghali et al. explores the challenges and achievements of the blood transfusion service in this country whose qualified human resources have been devastated by the long standing conflicts. Our Theme Section features some excellent papers from the XVth Congress of the Italian Society for Hemapheresis and Cell Manipulation (SldEM) held in Turin, Italy in 2011. These seven papers, selected and compiled by Guest Editor, Paolo Perseghin, focus on recent achievements in stem cell therapy, regenerative medicine and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In our What's Happening section for this issue, Guest Editor, Gerard Seghatchian, addresses "Massive Transfusion: An overview of the main characteristics and potential risks associated with substances used for correction of a coagulopathy".