Efficacy of transfusion of platelet concentrates obtained by manual pooling or by semiautomated pooling of buffy-coats: a retrospective analysis of count increment, corrected count increment and transfusion interval

Background and Objective  The preparation of platelet concentrates from pooling buffy-coats can be done manually or semiautomatically with the OrbiSac BC System. The objective of this study was to compare the clinical outcome of platelet transfusions prepared by these two methods in terms of 1-h count increment (1-h CI), 1-h corrected count increment (1-h CCI) and transfusion interval.
Materials and Methods  Platelet transfusions were identified retrospectively for inclusion in the control group (manual pooling) or the test group (automated pooling). Transfusion outcome variables were 1-h CI, 1-h CCI and transfusion interval. The impact of 16 patient- and platelet concentrate-related variables on transfusion efficacy was investigated by multiple regression analysis.
Results  The database analysed consisted of 205 control transfusions given to 36 patients and 219 test transfusions given to 36 patients. Mean platelet content and mean 1-h CI were statistically higher in the test group when compared to the control group ( P <  0·05), but mean 1-h CCI and transfusion interval were not. Multiple regression analysis resulted in models explaining 13% of the variance of 1-h CI, 8% of the variance of 1-h CCI and 17% of the variance of transfusion interval ( P <  0·05).
Conclusion  There are no significant differences between the two preparation methods regarding the clinical outcome of platelet transfusions, as the difference in 1-h CI is explained by differences in platelet content.