Evaluation of two new integrated adapters for blood drawing in closed blood bag systems: influence on different...

We compared a conventional blood donation bag system (A) with two newly developed ones (B, C) with integrated Y-shaped adapters. The new systems facilitate the withdrawal of blood samples in a closed system under aseptic conditions. The purpose of the study was to determine whether disturbances during blood donation in the different tubings influence the quality of the donated plasma due to activation processes of the coagulation system. In all bag samples from 34 probands for each system, we found higher levels of the global tests (aPTT, TT) compared to intraindividual controls. This was due to a greater amount of anticoagulant in the bag samples. An increase of procoagulant activity was demonstrated for bags A and C. Concerning the fibrinolytic system, values were reduced in all three systems compared to controls. In summary, the quality of the plasma in the three different bag devices was comparable to controls concerning factor activities measured as global tests. The activation of the coagulation system was only slightly higher in the new system B and C than in the conventional one (A). Therefore, the new closed systems are suitable for blood donation and reveal a high coagulation quality of the plasma.