Letter: Use of frozen-stored red cells

Lymphocyte response to blood transfusion in man: a comparison of different preparations of blood

The appearance of atypical lymphocytes in post-transfusion blood, their incorporation of tritiated thymidine in tissue culture and the elimination of cytotoxic antibody production, have been used as markers to show that frozen red cells are the least immunogenic when compared with dextran sedimented blood and whole blood donations. The absence of atypical lymphocytes and failure to produce lymphocytotoxic antibodies after transfusion of frozen cells is highly significant (P is less than 0.001) when compared with whole blood donations.

Efficacy of leucocyte-poor red blood cell suspensions prepared by sedimentation in hydroxyethyl starch

Hydroxyethyl starch (HES), which is licensed for human use as a plasma volume expander, has red blood cell sedimenting properties similar to high molecular weight dextran (HMWD). The present studies document the effectiveness of commercially available HES in preparing leukocyte-poor red blood cell suspensions (L-PRBCs) from donor whole blood and packed red blood cells stored in CPD up to 120 hours prior to processing. The effect of HES sedimentation on final white blood cell count, on erythrocyte p50 and 2,3-DPG concentration, and on short- and long-term in vivo survival of 72-hour stored donor red cells are described, along with favorable clinical experience with over 300 transfusions of HES-sedimented L-PRBCs. Since the method requires no special equipment, it is immediately available for widespread use.