PRESTORAGE LEUKOCYTE REDUCTION WITH IN-LINE FILTRATION OF WHOLE-BLOOD- EVALUATION OF RED-CELLS AND PLASMA STORAGE

Objectives: Prestorage filtration of blood components appears to be an effective method to reduce leukocyte-induced adverse reactions and ot her complications. To determine whether it is better to filter whole b lood before component separation. we compared the efficiency of in-lin e filtration of whale blood with that of postseparation filtration, Me thods: Blood was collected from normal, healthy donors into either reg ular triple-bag containers or into whole-blood integral-filter contain er systems. We then compared the in vitro storage values of leukocyte- depleted red blood cell concentrates (RBCC) kept at 4 degrees C, and p lasma frozen for 1 year with nonfiltered blood components as control, Results: All counts of white blood cells after filtration were < 1 x 1 0(6) per unit. For almost all storage parameters no significant differ ences were found between leukocyte-reduced RBCC and control units. The plasma fibrinopeptide A values below 30 ng/ml prior to freezing indic ate that filtration does not activate the coagulation factors. Further more, the filtration did not influence either the biological values or the coagulation factors of plasma units. Conclusions: Whole blood fil tration prior to component preparation seems to offer a useful alterna tive technique for obtaining leukocyte-reduced RBCC and plasma.