Storage of pools of six and eight platelet concentrates

Platelet concentrates (PCs) prepared from units of whole blood are routinely stored singly at 20 to 24 degrees C and pooled prior to transfusion. Studies have been conducted to evaluate the in vitro properties of pools of six (n = 19) and eight (n = 17) ABO-identical PCs after storage, with comparative studies involving single units (n = 33). The pools were prepared using the sterile connecting device. One-day-old and 3-day-old PCs were pooled and stored for a total of 5 days in a container system consisting of two 1000-mL polyolefin containers. The pooled platelet suspension was divided approximately equally between the two containers. The platelet count was reduced by less than 5 percent during storage of the pools, which is similar to the reduction found with storage of control units of single PCs. The volume loss due to pooling was 9.6 +/- 1.9 percent (mean +/- 1 SD). The pH of the PC pools was approximately 7.0 after 5 days of storage, with no pool having a pH below 6.2. In vitro platelet properties, such as morphology score, extent of shape change induced by ADP, total ATP, aggregation response to ADP and collagen, response to hypotonic stress, lactate dehydrogenase discharge, and beta-thromboglobulin release, were similar for pools and control single PCs. In addition, comparable low levels of thymidine uptake were detected in the mononuclear leukocyte fraction of pooled and unpooled PCs that were stored for 5 days at 20 to 24 degrees C, which indicates that the mixing of lymphocytes in the pool did not stimulate in vitro immunologic reactions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)