[Effectiveness of bacterial screening in preventing and controlling platelet bacterial contamination]

This study was purposed to investigate the effectiveness of bacterial screening with 24 hours holding in preventing and controlling bacterial contamination of platelets. Bacterial screening of apheresis platelets preserved for 24 hours was performed by using BacT/ALERT automatic bacterial culture system. The samples from 5 bags of platelet were taken in aseptic condition and were merged into 1 bag. The final sample was inoculated into aerobic and anaerobic bottle respectively for testing, meanwhile the screened platelet samples were held for 24 hours. If the platelets were cultured for 24 hours and identification of bacterial strains showed negative, the platelets could be released, and the original platelet samples should be rescreened if initiate positive was found. The results showed that in screening 8017 samples of apheresis platelets the initiate positive results were 16 (0.2%) and confirmed positive were 4 (0.05%). Out of 4 confirmed positive strains, three were Staphylococcus aureus and another was Staphylococcus auricularis. It is concluded that it is necessary for blood center to apply the method of bacterial screening of platelet with 24 hours holding as conventional screening method, which is an effective and feasible way to prevent and control bacterial contamination of platelets.