Increasing the time-to-freezing for clinical apheresis plasma meets quality specifications

In Australia, the vast distances between blood collection centres and processing facilities make it challenging to align supply with demand. Increasing the time to freezing for clinical plasma beyond 6 h would alleviate supply issues. This study aimed to determine the quality of clinical apheresis plasma frozen within 12 h of collection.

Apheresis plasma (n = 20) collected at donor centres was immediately transported to a blood processing facility, stored at 26°C and sampled aseptically at 6, 8 and 12 h post collection. Frozen samples were thawed, and coagulation factors (F) II, V, VII, VIII and XIII, von Willebrand factor (vWF) and fibrinogen were measured using a coagulation analyser.

FVIII concentrations declined in plasma frozen at 6, 8 and 12 h post collection (1.22 ± 0.27, 1.21 ± 0.25 and 1.16 ± 0.24 IU/mL, respectively) but not significantly (p = 0.3338). Importantly, all components met the FVIII specification (>0.7 IU/mL) for clinical plasma. Fibrinogen concentrations were stable from 6 to 12 h (p = 0.3100), as were vWF concentrations (p = 0.1281). Coagulation factors II, V, VII and XIII were not significantly different (p > 0.05 for all factors).

Clinical apheresis plasma can be frozen within 12 h of collection, allowing collections from donor centres further from processing centres and increasing supply.