Quality controls on cord blood unit contiguous segments: recommendation of the SFGM-TC

In the attempt to harmonize clinical practices between different French transplantation centers, the French Society of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cell Therapies (SFGM-TC) set up its fourth annual series of workshops which brought together practitioners from all of its member centers. These workshops took place in September 2013 in Lille. Literature and intra-laboratories studies suggest that attached segment is representative of cord blood unit (CBU). Nevertheless, some discrepancies have been observed when analyzing large data registries. To address these issues, we have listed recommendations to increase the standardization of segment processing and quality control (QC), information on units of measurement and specifications and action to be taken in case of out of specifications QC results on segment.