Critical blood shortages eased by new ...(art systems that are used to test single...),Health

The use of culture testing has added a new standard of care to whole blood-derived platelets making their safety from bacterial contamination, the leading infectious cause of morbidity and mortality associated with platelets, comparable to apheresis derived platelets, says Joseph Sweeney, MD, Director of Transfusion Medicine and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Blood centers that incorporate the Acrodose PL System into their process no longer have to trade off between platelet safety and availability.

Platelets, used to aid blood clotting, are in high demand for people with leukemia, blood disorders or cancer; recipients of bone marrow or organ transplants and accident, burn and trauma victims. Platelets are a valuable resource that must be transfused within five days of collection before expiring. Reliance on single-donor platelets which are expensive and time-consuming to collect may lead to blood shortages and cause strains on hospitals to meet patient needs.

Five or Seven Day Platelet

Shortages in platelet supply have led some blood centers to consider use of platelets stored longer than five days to help improve platelet availability. Studies have shown that platelets at greatest risk for transfusion-associated bacterial sepsis have the longest storage age. According to a report in the August 2007 issue of Transfusion, there is also a strong correlation between storage age with the severity of the resulting sepsis. (Sepsis is a severe infection of the blood and tissues which can lead to shock, organ failure and death.)

Extending platelet storage from 5 to 7 days can result in an increase in transfusionassociated sepsis
'/>"/>