The Air Bubbles and Foam in the Bag of Platelet: Effects on the Quality of the Final Product
Article history Received 27 Apr 2017 Accepted 25 Jun 2017 Available online 30 Aug 2017
Influence of double‐bag storage with air bubbles/foam and single‐bag storage without air bubbles/foam on the quality of double‐dose apheresis platelets
Dear Sir, A double-dose apheresis donation followed by a split into two platelet (PLT) products has been recommended as a cost-effective way of reducing the number of apheresis kits used. In the standard operating procedure of the Japanese Red Cross, collected double-dose apheresis PLT units sometimes need to be stored overnight before preparation, and a double-bag system (e.g. a volume of 460 mL split into two bags containing 230 mL) is used to avoid volume overloading. However, the double-bag system unavoidably adds extra air bubbles/foam (approximately 45 mL per bag) into the storage bags if another isolation bag is not connected. Exposure to air bubbles/foam has been associated with the degradation of PLTs (Sandgren & Saeed, 2011). Single-bag storage yields no air bubbles/foam, but volume overloading of the storage bag may occur because the recommended storage upper limits of volume and PLT content are 400 mL and 5·1× 1011, respectively (Recommendations for the ELP Storage Bag, Terumo BCT, Inc., Tokyo, Japan). The influence of the storage conditions (single-bag storage without air bubbles/foam and double-bag storage with air bubbles/foam) on in vitro PLT quality is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro quality of PLTs stored using the double-bag and single-bag methods. Double-dose apheresis PLTs in 100% plasma were collected from volunteer donors in accordance with Japanese donor selection guidelines using an automated apheresis device (Trima Accel®, Terumo BCT, Inc.), shipped to the blood centre in single-bag storage and then stored by double-bag (control, n= 4) or single-bag (test, n= 4) storage on a flatbed agitator (60 cycles min−1) at 20–24 ∘C. For double-bag storage, approximately half the volume of PLTs and air was transferred to another bag. After 24 h of storage, the control unit split into double-bag was combined into single-bag again. Subsequently, control and test units were split into paired PLT units, with one stored in a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) bag (Terumo BCT, Inc.) and the other in a polyolefin (PO) bag (KBP-1000FPN; Kawasumi Laboratories, Tokyo, Japan) until day 7. Because the pharmaceutical process control system used by Japanese Red Cross blood centres requires another storage bag, we used another PO bag that
Sterilization method of platelet storage containers affects in vitro parameters
Background and Aim  Four butyryl trihexyl phthalate plasticized polyvinyl chloride (BTHC‐PVC) containers were compared for storage of leukoreduced platelet concentrates (LR‐PC): three ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilized (Gambro, Haemonetics, Fresenius), and one steam‐sterilized (Fresenius).