Plateletpheresis concentrates produced with the COMTEC cell separator: theFrench experience

The latest generation of cell separators such as Trima (Gambro), Amicus (Ba xter) and AS-TEC 204 (Fresenius), allow the collection of leucocyte-reduced platelet concentrates without secondary filtration. Fresenius has recently developed the COMTEC cell separator whose performance has been evaluated b y several teams in France. This new cell separator is an improved version o f the Fresenius AS-TEC 204 cell separator, designed to allow more efficient platelet collections. This study reports on the experience of six French t eams (from Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Creteil, Dijon, Lille and Nancy) who obtained 696 leucocyte-reduced plateletpheresis concentrates in the course of collection using the new Fresenius COMTEC cell separator. All healthy v olunteer donors fulfilled French selection criteria for platelet apheresis. Donors were eligible if they had suitable venous accesses, if their bodywe ight was (*)50 kg and if their pre-apheresis platelet count was > 150 x 10( 9) l(-1). Between 4606 and 5229 ml of blood were processed. The mean volume of the platelet concentrates was between 439 and 493 ml (mean 460 +/- 63 m l). The platelet yield was of the order of 5.18 +/- 1.02 x 10(11) with only one platelet concentrate below the norm of 2 x 10(11) platelets (0.91 x 10 (11)). No plausible explanation for this was found. The residual leucocyte levels conform to current norms. The platelet concentrates contained less t han 1 x 10(6) leucocytes, per concentrate (mean 0.233 +/- 0.150 x 10(6) leu cocytes) in more than 97% of the components produced with > 95% statistical confidence. The efficacy of the cell separator (52.44 +/- 7.35%) is compar able to that of other separators. The Fresenius COMTEC cell separator makes , it possible to obtain leucocyte-reduced platelet concentrates which compl y with current standards both in terms of platelet content and residual leu cocyte level. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.