COMPARISON OF IN-VIVO RED-CELL SURVIVAL OF DONATIONS COLLECTED BY HEMONETICS MCS VERSUS CONVENTIONAL COLLECTION

The Haemonetics Multicomponents System (MCS) cell separator allows con current donation of red cells in addition to platelets and/or plasma, thus increasing the versatility of apheresis donations. In vivo surviv al of autologous red cells obtained by MCS was compared with red cells collected conventionally. In this cross-over controlled study, live m ale volunteers donated one unit of red cells by MCS and one unit of wh ole blood by the conventional manual method, 3 months apart. After sto ring donations in SAG-M for 35 days under standard conditions, radioac tive (Cr-51)-labelled autologous red cells were injected into each don or. The post-transfusion recovery (PTR) of red cells at 24 and 48 h di d not show any significant difference between red cells obtained manua lly and by MCS, indicating that processing differences have no detrime ntal effects on red cell survival.