German multicenter studies on plateletpheresis from healthy donors. German Hemapheresis Study Group

It is reported on two German Multicenter Plateletpheresis Studies with the Fresenius AS 104 cell separator accompanied by a Multicenter Counting Study. 15 centers participated, a total of 1884 separations were evaluated. It could be shown that multicenter studies help to give a more objective opinion about a cell separator and the separation protocol used if it is possible to improve the counting methods and to eliminate individual center effects by an accompanying Multicenter Counting Study. The AS 104 proved to be a good cell separator for platelet collection regarding platelet yields (3.1 x 11" from 3.5 I citrated blood), separation efficiency (about 45%), yield prediction (SD = not equal to 15%) and leukocyte contamination (median WBC 47 x 10(6)).