The storage of hard-packed red blood cells in citrate-phosphate-dextrose (CPD) and CPD-adenine (CPDA-1).

The preservation of red cells "hard packed" to a hematocrit of over 80% from blood collected in citrate-phosphate-dextrose (CPD) or CPD-adenine (CPDA-1) has been investigated. After 21 days of storage, cells that had been collected in CPD solution had consumed most or all of the available glucose and manifested markedly impaired viability after reinfusion into the normal donor. In contrast, red cells prepared from blood collected in CPDA-1, a medium containing supplementary adenine and an increased amount of glucose, maintained higher glucose and adenosine triphosphate levels and, in most instances, manifested satisfactory posttransfusion viability. We emphasize that in addition to providing longer shelf life of stored blood, CPDA-1 provides a better hard-packed red cell concentrate for transfusion at 21 days.