EVALUATION OF APHERESIS PLATELET CONCENTRATES COLLECTED WITH A REDUCED (30-ML) COLLECTION CHAMBER WITH RESUSPENSION AND STORAGE IN A SYNTHETIC MEDIUM

Recently, the CS-3000(R) Plus Blood Cell Separator with the TNX-6 plat elet separation chamber insert has been furnished with a small-volume (30-ml) collection chamber. In this study, a platelet synthetic medium containing glucose and bicarbonate (PSM) was used for resuspension an d storage of this highly concentrated platelet product. Eighteen donor s participated in a paired study design where each participant donated platelets on two occasions, once following collection in a standard c hamber with resuspension and storage in plasma and once following coll ection in the new chamber with resuspension and storage in PSM. Substa ntially higher total platelet counts were obtained using platelets col lected in the small chamber and stored in PSM as compared to control ( 4.4+/-0.9x10(11) vs. 3.5+/-0.9x10(11) platelets, p<0.01 by paired t te st). After 5 days of storage, PSM-stored platelets demonstrated higher ATP levels, less lactate dehydrogenase in the supernatant and increas ed lactate production with resulting lower pH at day 5 of storage (6.9 4+/-0.15 vs. 7.08+/-0.09, p<0.05). There were no statistically signifi cant differences of the survival by multiple-hit estimation of PSM-sto red as compared to plasma-stored platelets as determined by In-111 lab eling and infusion. A slight decrease in the initial percent recovery with the additive-suspended as compared to suspended plasma cells was noted: 50+/-8 versus 54+/-9%, respectively (p<0.05). In conclusion, th e CS-3000 Plus/TNX-6 apheresis system with a new reduced-volume collec tion chamber and an additive solution provides a plasma-poor and highl y concentrated platelet product with satisfactory in vivo viability an d in vitro functional characteristics after 5 days of storage.