Frequency and specificity of the Trima Accel "verify WBCs" advisory: considerations for product management

BACKGROUND: The Trima Accel displays a “verify WBCs” message if the plateletpheresis product (PLT) may not be leukoreduced (LR). Most blood banks require sensitive white blood cell (WBC) testing of these PLTs by flow or Nageotte. We evaluated how often these PLTs were non‐LR by European or US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) criteria and whether sensitive WBC testing is necessary. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Phase 1 reviewed the frequency of this message with various procedure types and the flow WBC results for PLTs with or without the message. Phase 2 assessed how many FDA LR failures were detectable by a hematology analyzer. In Phase 3, PLTs were managed by hematology analyzer results. RESULTS: In Phase 1, 3.8% of PLT‐only and 11.1% of PLT‐plasma collections had the “verify WBCs” message. Only 1% of “verify” PLTs contained more than 1 × 10⁶ WBCs and only 0.5% were FDA LR failures. In Phase 2, 10 of 670 “verify” PLTs and one nonflagged PLT were FDA LR failures. Six of 11 LR failures had hematology analyzer WBC concentrations of 0.4 × 10⁹/L or higher. In Phase 3, “verify” PLTs were allowed in inventory if hematology analyzer WBC concentration was below 0.4 × 10⁹/L; inventory quality control showed no FDA LR failures by flow. Trima Version 6.0 software lowered the “verify” message frequency in PLT‐plasma procedures but not in PLT‐only procedures. CONCLUSION: Four percent of Trima PLT collections have the “verify WBCs” message but almost all of these are LR by European and FDA criteria. Fifty percent of FDA LR failures were detectable by a hematology analyzer. Sensitive WBC testing of all “verify WBCs” PLTs may not be necessary to satisfy LR quality assurance requirements.