Plateletapheresis: comparison of processing times, platelet yields, and white blood cell content with several commonly used systems.

In this study we compare processing times and platelet yields of eight systems: five double-needle (DN)--Fenwal CS3000 Plus with interface offset (IO) of 6 (Fen 6) and IO of 10 (Fen 10), a prototype Fenwal Amicus (AM-DN), Spectra version 4 (Spec 4-DN) and version 5 with leukoreduction system (Spec 5-LRS); and three single-needle (SN) systems--Haemonetics MCS Plus (MCS+), prototype Amicus (AM-SN), and Spectra version 4 (Spec 4-SN). Twenty-five procedures from each of the systems (except AM-SN, N = 13) were compared; each system had comparable preprocedure platelet counts and similar endpoints. Five systems--MCS+, Fen 6, Fen 10 with leukoreduction filter (MCS + LRF), (Fen 6 LRF), (Fen 10 LRF), as well as AM-DN, and Spec 5-LRS--were compared for WBC content. P-selectin expression was compared in the MCS+; Fen-10 with A-35 (Fen 10-A35) and PLT-30 (Fen 10-PLT30) collection chambers; Spec 4-DN; and platelet-rich plasma. We found AM-DN (63 +/- 16 min) had a significantly lower average processing time than all other systems except AM-SN. Spectra 4-DN (5.6 +/- 1.7 x 10(11) Plt) produced significantly more platelets and had a significantly higher incidence of products > or = 6.0 x 10(11) (56%) and higher incidence of products > or = 6.6 x 10(11) Plt (32%) than all other systems. AM-DN (0.073 +/- 0.017 x 10(11) Plt/min) had a significantly higher collection rate than all other systems except AM-SN. The WBC content comparison indicated MCS+ with a filter; and AM-DN and Spectra 5-LRS without filters were capable of consistently (99.32-100%) producing products with < 5 x 10(6) WBC, but were less consistent (86.36-99.26%) at < 1 x 10(6) WBC. MCS+ and Fen 10-PLT30 had significantly (p < .05) less p-selectin expression than all other systems but not between each other. From the data in this study, if leukoreduced platelets were needed in the shortest processing time, the first and second choices would be Amicus-DN and Spectra 5-LRS, respectively.