What does leukoreduced blood mean?
Leukoreduction is the removal of white blood cells (or leukocytes) from the blood or blood components supplied for blood transfusion. After the removal of the leukocytes, the blood product is said to be leukoreduced.
What are the modified blood products?
Modified blood components include leukoreduced, irradiated, frozen, washed, and volume-reduced products. The majority of blood products transfused in the United States are leukoreduced, a process by which 99.9% of the white blood cells (WBCs) are removed.
Who needs leukoreduced blood?
Generally accepted indications for leukoreduction of blood products include: (1) reduction of HLA alloimmunization risk in patients who require long term platelet support, or for potential organ transplant recipients, (2) reduction of CMV transmission in at-risk patients, and (3) reduction of the rate of recurrent …
How do you irradiate blood products?
Irradiation of blood products is undertaken using a dedicated blood irradiator located onsite with a long half-life gamma emitting source. Irradiation of blood products will take a further 4 – 5 minutes to provide.
How is leukoreduction performed?
Leukoreduction can be performed by filtration prior to component storage (prestorage leukoreduction) or during the transfusion (bedside filtration). For apheresis-derived platelets, leukoreduction is often performed by cell separation during the apheresis collection.
Why do we irradiate blood?
Irradiating blood components prevents the donor white cells replicating and mounting an immune response against a vulnerable patient causing transfusion-associated-graft-versus-host disease (TA-GvHD).
Why are some blood products irradiated?
What is irradiated blood and why is it needed? Irradiated blood is blood that has been treated with radiation (by x-rays or other forms of radioactivity) to prevent Transfusion- Associated Graft-versus-Host Disease (TA-GvHD).
Who should get irradiated blood products?
To prevent ta-GvHD, irradiated blood products should be given to patients at risk: patients after bone marrow transplantation, newborns and children in the 1st year, patients with severe combined immunodeficiency, and patients receiving blood from first-degree relatives.
Can platelets be Leukoreduced?
Leukoreduced Blood Products Leukoreduction techniques can be used for RBC and platelet units. The units are filtered before storage or at the bedside.
When should you irradiate blood?
As described in the Technical Manual (20th Edition) and Circular of Information (October 2017), cellular blood components are irradiated prior to transfusion to prevent the proliferation of viable T lymphocytes which are the immediate cause of Transfusion Associated-Graft Versus Host Disease (TA-GVHD).
Why is blood irradiation done?
Irradiation (or pathogen inactivation) of blood products is performed to abrogate the risk of transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease (TA-GVHD), a rare and almost universally fatal complication of blood transfusion with no successful treatment options.
What is the purpose of irradiating blood products?