An overview of the Welsh bone marrow donor registry: 10 years of bone marrow donor provision.

The Welsh Bone Marrow Donor Registry (WBMDR) is in its 11th year of operation and its 4th year as an International 'Hub' participating in Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide. It is operated by the Welsh Regional Tissue Typing Laboratory which is accredited by Clinical Pathology Accreditation (UK) Ltd, and the European Federation for Immunogenetics and, together with the Welsh Blood Service, its donor centre, is ISO 9001 Registered. The active donor panel of over 21 000 regular blood donors are all HLA-A, B, DR, DQ typed (over 95% to the split specificity level or higher). All HLA-DR, DQ and over 50% of HLA-A, B typing has been performed by DNA-based methods. CMV antibody status, now tested on all donors, is known on over 70% of subjects. The WBMDR has over 80% success at obtaining Confirmatory Typing samples and operates a rapid Expanded Typing service on stored donor material. It has provided 174 bone marrow donations (140 for UK and 34 for overseas patients), and 11 lymphocyte donations, since its inception in 1989.