Evaluation of platelet damage in two different centrifugal pumps based on measurements of alpha-granule packing proteins

Mechanical trauma caused by centrifugal pumps is usually evaluated in terms of hemolysis. However, platelet damage caused by centrifugal pumps has not been studied well. We evaluated platelet damage in 2 different centrifugal pumps, the Medtronic BioMedicus BP-80 and the Terumo Capiox, in vitro and compared the results in terms of hemolysis. To evaluate platelet damage, the rate of increase (RI) for beta-thromboglobulin (beta-TG) and platelet factor-4 (PF-4) were measured by enzyme immunoassay. RI was defined as follows: RI for beta-TG is deltabeta-TG/deltaN and RI for PF-4 is deltaPF-4/deltaN where deltabeta-TG is the increase in beta-TG, deltaPF-4 is the increase in PF-4, and deltaN is the increase of the passing number, which is defined in the following equation: N = Qt/V (t, time; V, priming volume; Q, flow rate). Each pump was tested in a mock circuit for 3 h under a flow rate of 5 L/min and a pressure head of 100 mm Hg using fresh human heparinized blood (n = 5). For comparison, the normalized index of hemolysis (NIH) values were calculated for both pumps. The NIH values did not indicate a significant difference between the Capiox and the BP-80 pumps (Capiox vs. BP-80, 0.0021 +/- 0.0004 vs. 0.0034 +/- 0.0007, NS). However, the RI values for beta-TG and PF-4 in the Capiox were significantly lower than in the BP-80 (beta-TG, 0.198 +/- 0.047 vs. 0.376 +/- 0.049; PF-4, 0.080 +/- 0.014 vs. 0.268 +/- 0.043, p < 0.05). In conclusion, although there was no significant difference between the 2 pumps in terms of hemolysis, the Capiox centrifugal pump induced less platelet damage than the BP-80. The results suggest that measurements of RI for beta-TG and PF-4 are more sensitive parameters than NIH values for evaluating blood cell damage.