Plateletpheresis: A comparison between two blood cell separators at a tertiary care facility.

Abstract

Objective: Platelet concentrate is an invaluable support product in the management patients presenting with thrombocytopenia. Collection of high quality, single donor platelets depends upon efficient cell separators at the plateletapheresis facility. We evaluated the performance of two different cell separators used for plateletpheresis at our facility. This evaluation was done to ascertain which cell separator performed better in terms of various product parameters. Study Design: Cross Sectional study. Setting: Chughtai Stat Lab, National Hospital. Period: July to December 2020. Material & Methods: A total of 100 plateletapheresis procedures were done, 50 on Cobe Spectra and 50 on Haemonetics MCS900. Male donors were selected after detailed medical history, screening and informed consent. For each cell separator, the total procedure time, collection rate and platelet yield of the final product (single donor platelets) was noted and compared. The predonation platelet count of each donor was also recorded. Results: Donor turnaround time was better for the Cobe 60.1 + 2.757 min vs 81.1 + 3.311 min on Heamonetics (p value < 0.0001). Cobe had a superior collection rate 0.065+0.0088 (PLT×10 ¹¹/min) than Heamonetics 0.0519 + 0.007 (PLT×10 ¹¹/min) (p value< 0.0001). For both cell separators, the final product was similar in terms of platelet yield (p value = 0.56). Overall, donor predonation platelet counts ranged from 220-480x10⁹ /L. Pearson correlation test showed positive correlation (r = 0811, p value; < 0.0001) between platelet yield and donor platelet count. Conclusion: Continuous flow cell separators, like the Cobe spectra, offer a high quality platelet product with greater efficiency when compared to intermittent flow cell separators like the Haemonetics.