Blood Transfusion

Evaluation of Red Blood Cells (RBC) to Predict Post-Transfusion Survival

Application

Technique to evaluate red blood cell units (RBC) and predict their post-transfusion survival.

Key Benefits

No existing techniques to predict post-transfusion survival of RBC units.
Provides a quality control technique to predict post-transfusion survival of RBC units prior to transfusion.

Market Summary

Millions of patients are transfused with red blood cells (RBCs) each year. The blood market includes products used for collecting, typing, processing, and transfusing of blood. Blood transfusions will continue to be vital in the healthcare arena and improved testing and screening procedures of RBCs will prevent morbidity and mortality in patients. However there are currently no existing techniques to predict post-transfusion survival.

Technical Summary

There are only three quality control measures utilized prior to release of a unit of red blood cells (RBCs): 1) the absence of screened pathogens, 2) compatibility with the patient, and 3) storage history at 4 degrees Celsius. However, RBCs store differently as a function of factors intrinsic to the donor and the actual factors that regulate whether blood from a given donor stores well or not is poorly understood. For this reason, there are currently no quality control measures regarding the extent to which a transfused unit of RBCs will survive post-transfusion. This is a medical problem because RBCs that are less efficacious and cleared from circulation represent a toxic insult to the recipient, which may result in morbidity and mortality. This technology describes a method for assessing an RBC unit prior to transfusion in order to predict its post-transfusion survival. The ability to assess RBC units in this way will increase efficacy and decrease toxicity of transfused RBC units.