is thawed at 37°C, usually in a water bath. Care must be taken to ensure that the water bath is not contaminated and that the bags of cryoprecipitate are placed inside another bag (overwrap) to minimize the chance of contamination. When using cryoprecipitate, it is customary to pool several bags so that only one container is sent to the patient care area for transfusion. Some blood centers pool several bags of cryoprecipitate before freezing them; this is more convenient for the transfusion service because it eliminates the need to pool individual bags of cryoprecipitate after they are thawed. After thawing, the cryoprecipitate must be maintained at room temperature to avoid reprecipitation of factor VIII.
Table 5.9 Platelet additive solution component concentration (mM).
Sources: Modified from Gulliksson H. Platelet additive solutions: current status. Immunohematology 2007; 23(1):14–17; Alhumaidan H, Sweeney J. Current status of additive solutions for platelets. J Clin Apher 2012; 27:93–98; Vermeij J. Methods for preparing platelet products. WO 2016/014854 A1. Geneva: World Intellectual Property Organization International Bureau, January 28, 2016.
| InterSola(Fenwal) | Isoplatea(Terumo) | Composol(Fresenius) | Plasma Lyte A (Baxter) | SSP+(MacoPharma) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sodium chloride | 77 | 92.7 | 90 | 90 | 69 |
| Potassium chloride | 0 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Magnesium chloride | 0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 3 | 1.5 |
| Sodium citrate | 10 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 10 |
| Sodium phosphate buffer | 26 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 26 |
| Sodium acetate | 30 | 27.2 | 27 | 27 | 30 |
| Sodium gluconate | 0 | 22.9 | 23 | 23 | 0 |
a Currently the only platelet additive solutions approved for use in the United States.
5.4 Platelet concentrates—whole blood
Description of component
The official term for this component is platelets. These are platelets suspended in plasma or platelet additive solution (PAS) (Table 5.9) prepared by centrifugation of WB. Platelets may also be produced by cytapheresis (see Chapter 12). A unit of WB‐derived platelets must contain at least 5.5 × 1010 platelets [24]. Although there is no required volume, these units usually have a volume of about 50 mL to maintain viability and function during storage.
To prepare a dose of pooled platelets, 4–6 units of WB‐derived platelets are pooled together in an open system. After platelet pooling in open system, the platelets have a short outdate of 4 hours at room temperature. In addition, these platelet products are tested for bacterial contamination prior to issuing with point of care testing [65]. These platelets can be leukoreduced and irradiated if it is required based on the patient’s diagnosis. Acrodose platelet is an alternative technology for pooling platelets in the closed system [66]. Acrodose platelets are pretested for bacterial contamination, do not require pooling in the hospital blood bank, and can be issued in emergency situations immediately without further manipulation. Acrodose platelets can be stored for a total of 5 days at room temperature.
WB‐derived and apheresis platelets can be suspended in PASs. Advantages of PASs include reduction in allergic transfusion reactions, possibly TRALI and ABO‐mismatched hemolysis [67–69]. PAS also is used to mitigate deleterious effects of pathogen‐inactivated technology and can potentially improve viability of platelets and extend their days of storage. There are multiple PAS products on the European and US markets for WB‐derived and apheresis platelets.
There are two methods for preparing platelets from WB: the platelet‐rich plasma (PRP) method and the buffy coat method (Figure 5.3) [70]. In the United States, platelets are prepared using the PRP method; in Europe and Canada, the buffy coat method is used [70, 71]. The PRP method uses low g‐forces (“soft” spin), and the PRP easily separates from the red cells [72] within 8 hours after blood collection. The PRP is transferred into a satellite bag to separate it from the red cells (Figures 5.2 and 5.3). The PRP is then centrifuged at higher g‐forces (“hard” spin) and the platelet‐poor plasma is removed, leaving a platelet concentrate and about 50 mL of plasma (Figure 5.3). After the plasma is removed, the platelet concentrate is left undisturbed or, preferably, placed on the platelet storage rotating device for 1 hour to minimize platelet damage and allow for spontaneous resuspension [73]. In the PRP method, the first step is a soft spin and the second step is a hard spin (Figure 5.3); because of the soft spin, about 20% of the plasma and 20–30% of the platelets remain with the red cells [70]. Another 5–10% of platelets are lost during the second centrifugation step when the PRP is converted to a platelet concentrate. Thus, the PRP method yields about 60–75% of the original platelets, a red cell unit containing about 40 mL of plasma, and about 50% or more of the leukocytes in the original unit of WB. The disadvantages of this method are the loss of some plasma that could be used for fractionation and the high leukocyte content of the platelets.
Figure 5.3 Comparison of platelet‐rich plasma (PRP) and buffy coat (BC) methods of platelet preparation. RBC, red blood cell.
When platelets are produced by the buffy coat method, the WB is centrifuged at a higher g‐force (hard spin) to create a buffy coat that also contains most of the platelets (85%) and leukocytes [70, 74]. Because the WB centrifugation step involves higher g‐forces, the red cells are more tightly packed and more plasma is obtained along with the buffy coat. However, to obtain most of the buffy coat, it is necessary to remove some of the red cells, and so there is a loss of about 20–25 mL of red cells [70]. To obtain a platelet concentrate,