Thirty-five-day modified red cells and 7-day stored platelet concentrates from triple bags of identical PVC formulation.

There is continuous need for blood components with long shelf life. To this end the 'circle' triple pack has been modified to provide 35-day red cell and 7-day platelet concentrates, in PVC bags of identical formulation and 0.4 mm thick. The plasticizer is a mixture of DEHP and TOTM (CLX Mark II). The primary pack contains 63 ml of CP 277.5 mM glucose. The third pack contains 100 ml of citric acid 2 mM, trisodium citrate 20 mM, NaH2PO4 20 mM, NaCl 123 mM, glucose 40 mM, and adenine 1.26 mM. Plasma is adenine-free. With these modifications both hard- and soft-spun red cells gave satisfactory biochemical and autologous survival indices up to 35 days of storage, the haematocrit not exceeding 60%. Platelet concentrates were acceptable at 7 days of shelf-life.