Transfusion
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Red blood cell transfusion and immune function in critically ill children: a prospective observational study.
Our previous in vitro work showed that stored red blood cells (RBCs) increasingly suppress markers of innate immune function with increased storage time. This multicenter prospective observational study tests the hypothesis that a single RBC transfusion in critically ill children is associated with immune suppression as a function of storage time. ⋯ In this pilot cohort of critically ill children, transfusion with older prestorage leukoreduced RBCs was associated with persistence of innate immune suppression and systemic inflammation. This was not seen with fresher RBCs. RBC transfusion had no short-term association with adaptive immune function. Further studies are warranted to confirm these findings in a larger cohort of patients.