Factors affecting the volume of umbilical cord blood collections

Objective. Our purpose was to find factors that may help increase the numbe r of the HSC (CD34(+)) collected from umbilical cord blood for transplantat ion. Study design. We assessed the effect of cesarean sections and vaginal deliv eries on the volume of the umbilical cord blood collected from 155 healthy term neonates retrospectively Results. The volume of umbilical cord blood obtained in 29 cesarean deliver ies was 103.9+/-33.6 mi compared with 84.2+/-25.3 mi collected in 126 vagin al deliveries. Although the percentage of CD34(+) cells was comparable in b oth groups, the absolute number of CD34(+) cells was significantly higher i n the cesarean section group because of the larger volume collected. Conclusions. Cesarean sections may allow collection of significantly increa sed volumes of umbilical cord blood and numbers of CD34(+) cells compared t o vaginal deliveries.