Background: Optimizing the yields of plateletpheresis by increasing collection efficiencies may provide several benefits: to patients, by increasing the dose in single-donor platelet (SDP) units; to the collection center, by increasing the percentage of components that may be split into double units; and/or to the donor, by reducing the duration of donation.
Study design and methods: A prospective, randomized study was undertaken to compare the efficiency of platelet collection in paired donations by 21 donors on two cell separators (Spectra LRS, version [v] 5.1; and AMICUS, v2.37). The order of donation was randomly assigned; donations were performed at least 2 weeks apart. A fixed blood volume (4000 mL) was processed by utilizing standard protocols. Findings were confirmed in a retrospective, matched study that compared the two separators by using fixed collection times (90 min).
Results: The AMICUS and Spectra LRS separators consistently produced white cell-reduced (<1 x 10(6) white cells) components. The AMICUS harvested 32 percent more platelets on average (median, 4.9 x 10(11); range, 1.5-8.7 x 10(11)) than the Spectra LRS (median, 3.7 x 10(11); range, 2.1-7.7 x 10(11)) (p = 0.03), with mean times of 71.5 and 66.0 minutes (p = 0.03), respectively, to process 4000 mL. Mild donor reactions tended to be more common on the AMICUS separator, which used significantly more ACD (median 482 mL vs. 389 mL; p<0.0001) than on the Spectra LRS.
Conclusions: The AMICUS separator harvested more platelets per unit of blood volume processed than the Spectra LRS. Possible benefits include increased dose in each single-donor unit, increased double-unit harvests, and/or shorter donation time.