New transfusion rules restrict donations from previously preg...(s do not impact the ability for women to...),Health

Date:10/2/2007

s do not impact the ability for women to donate whole blood, it does curtail their donation of high plasma volume blood components such as apheresis platelets. Deferring this segment of the population is estimated to potentially affect as many as 50 percent of the female donor base or several million women. Many centers, including the American Red Cross (ARC), are already starting to shift to predominantly male donors for some blood products. These changes will undoubtedly shrink an already dwindling donor pool and have a serious impact on the ability to meet the ever increasing demand for blood products for transfusion. To counter the problem, blood centers are adopting the Pall AcrodoseTM PL System to help ensure the availability of safe platelets despite the new donor restrictions. The Acrodose PL System enables blood banks to use the existing resources of valuable whole blood to efficiently obtain a transfusion-ready, therapeutic dose of platelets.

The resulting AcrodoseSM Platelets are leukocyte reduced, matched for blood type and tested for bacteria using a sensitive culture-based system, the same type of state-of-the-art systems that are used to test apheresis platelets. They are clinically equivalent in terms of platelet count and quality to those derived from apheresis, but at a lower cost. With the Acrodose PL System, blood centers and hospitals will no longer have to rely on apheresis platelets, which are both expensive and time-consuming to collect, and have already been associated with blood shortages.

Balancing Blood Safety and Availability

Maintaining a safe and available blood supply is a constant balancing act. Today, only about five percent of the eligible donor population actually gives blood. According to the AABB, ensuring an adequate supply of blood is increasingly more challenging. Donor deferrals have increased over the years due to added restrictions and more thorough screening based on behaviors which
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Contact: Marcia Katz marcia_katz@pall.com 516-801-9851 Pall Corporation Source:Eurekalert

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