• Rashmi Tondon, Prashant Pandey, and Rajendra Chaudhry.
• Department of Transfusion Medicine, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, D-2229 Indira Nagar, Lucknow 226016, Uttar Pradesh, India.
• J Clin Apher. 2008 Jan 1;23(4):123-8.

IntroductionThis study reports the frequency and nature of plateletpheresis deferrals and evaluates donors with low platelet count and hemoglobin levels so as to assess the possibility of reentry without hampering donor safety.Materials And MethodsThree-year retrospective data of plateletpheresis deferral was collected. Data from actual procedures was also reviewed to analyze the safety of performing plateletpheresis in donors with low hemoglobin and platelet values.ResultsFour hundred sixteen donors were deferred for various reasons among 1,515 screened (27.5%), of which 69.7% deferrals were because of low platelet count (55.8%) and less hemoglobin levels. Among the low platelet count donor group, 20.3% had a count between 141 and 149 x 10(9)/L and 41.8% below 120 x 10(9)/L. Of the 14% donors deferred for low hemoglobin, 62.1% had values in the range of 11.5-12.4 g/dL with normal mean corpuscular volume and red cell distribution width in most (86.2%) of them. Expected blood loss in each procedure varied between 20 and 30 mL, whereas RBC contamination in the product varied from 0 to 1.6 mL in 538 procedures. There were 176 donations with predonation platelet count <180 x 10(9)/L (32.7%). None of the 14 procedures performed on donors with platelet count of 150 x 10(9)/L showed evidence of thrombocytopenia or donor reaction.ConclusionLowering the cut-off value for plateletpheresis from 12.5 g/dL to 11.5 g/dL has no deleterious effect on donor safety as the blood loss is minimal. One-fifth deferrals can be reconsidered if the criteria of plateletpheresis donor selection are relaxed for hemoglobin and platelet count.

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