In the wake of mass casualties from either natural disasters, such as the earthquake in Indonesia, or combat situations in Iraq and Afghanistan extending the shelf life of platelets could have global implications for those in critical need of the blood product.
Platelets are the component of whole blood that control bleeding and prevent life-threatening hemorrhages. Patients undergoing a bone marrow transplant, cardiac surgery, chemotherapy, radiation treatment or organ transplants often require platelet transfusions.
"We found that by storing the platelets in the artificial preservative, we were able to retain the quality of the blood product for seven days, as opposed to having to dispose of them after only five days," says lead author Joseph D. Sweeney, MD, director of transfusion services at The Miriam Hospital and professor at Brown Medical School.
In addition, Sweeney and his team were able to reduce up to 80 percent of the plasma in the platelets stored in preservative. Since plasma is responsible for the majority of the adverse reactions that transfusion patients may experience, this suggests that those receiving transfusions will better tolerate the new blood product.
Sweeney explains, "Currently, platelets are stored in plasma and discarded after five days. Significantly reducing the amount of plasma would likely lessen the frequency of these adverse events."
The authors write that inadequate inventories of platelets due to their short shelf life and highly unpredictable demand, greatly limits blood centers' ability to provide platelets for essential transfusions. With a storage potential of s
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Contact: Megan Martin
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Lifespan
31-May-2006