[Blood component separation with gravity filtration: production of leukocyte-depleted erythrocyte concentrates]

In this study a leukocyte-depleted red-cell concentrate (RCC) was prepared by a new plasma separation filter separating by gravity. This separation filter and a leukocyte depletion filter were integrated in a 4-blood-bag system. The filtered RCC was characterized, the RCC was stored for 6 weeks, and tests to evaluate the quality of the stored RCC were performed every week. The leukocyte contamination of the RCC was (0.59 +/- 0.28 microliter-1) immediately after filtration. Compared with conventionally prepared RCC, at the end of the 6-week storage period low concentrations of LDH (86.0 +/- 5.5 U/l), K+ (36.6 +/- 6.4 mmol/l) and free hemoglobin (101.0 +/- 12.4 mg/100 ml) in the supernatant were determined.