Platelet safety strategies in Japan: impact of short shelf life on the incidence of septic reactions

BACKGROUND: Transfusion-transmitted bacterial infections (TTBIs) often have serious consequences for patients. The Japanese Red Cross (JRC) has not implemented culture screening for platelet concentrate (PC), but it has maintained a shelf life of 85 hours for PC. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: The JRC collected reports of suspected TTBI and investigated causal relationships using PC samples and patient blood samples. PCs showing apparent abnormalities were retrieved and cultured and analyzed for bacterial growth. RESULTS: The JRC analyzed 86 samples available from 135 transfused PCs with suspected TTBIs that were collected over the past 12 years; 17 (19.8%) were culture-positive. One, 6, and 10 TTBIs developed in patients on Days 1, 2, and 3 after PC collection, respectively. Assuming that PC is transfused on the day of issue, the TTBI risk was fourfold higher on Day 3 than on Day 2, after adjusting the TTBI incidence for the number of PCs issued per day. Compared with the model of issuing all PCs on Day 3, issuing PCs with the current distribution of storage time could have decreased the TTBI incidence by 56%. During the past 8 years, the JRC retrieved 960 PC units because of apparent abnormalities, 2.8% of which were culture-positive. CONCLUSION: The short shelf life of PC is associated with a low incidence of reported TTBIs, more than half of which occurred on Day 3 relative to earlier time points. Visual inspection of PC before transfusion is crucial in detecting bacterially contaminated PC despite its low positive predictive value.