Transfusion medicine
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Transfusion medicine · Jun 2011
Evaluation of noninvasive methods for the estimation of haemoglobin content in red blood cell concentrates.
Red blood cell concentrates (RCCs) are the major blood component transfused to patients. There is a great variability in patient response, depending on both the patient's blood volume and haemoglobin content in the RCC. Standardisation of transfusion practice is needed to improve the prediction of patient outcome. ⋯ We recommend the use of weight or volume of the RCCs as the basis of estimating haemoglobin in the RCC and postulate that this can be used in future studies to explore the effects of a haemoglobin dose-based transfusion system. As the weight - and sometimes the volume - of the blood bag is easily accessible, in contrast to direct haemoglobin measurements from each individual unit, this method is feasible and simple.