I ( we the Blood banking Community) need your help: The American Association of Blood Banking and the FDA will try and implement by 03/01/04 a set of new regulations concerning the determination whether bags of random human platelets are contaminated with bacteria. Every hospital in the US will be required to assay every unit of platelets prior to transfusion to determine if there is a bacterial contamination present. This is an enormous task since to date, there is no reliable methodology ( pH dip sticks, glucose levels, Gram stain...) to determine the bacterial contaminations in the sterile bags received from te Red Cross. The method must be a rapid one since the overall shelf life of platelets is 5 days only and hence the units cannot be quarantined for long time prior to release to patients. The question to the Flow Community is whether some flow technology can be applied to determine if such contamination is present in a specimen obtained in a sterile manner form the unit to be transfused to patients.. For example are there any "pan-bacterial wall" antibodies available that one use , to check a sample from a bag of platelets to determine the extent of contamination if any. The major contaminants that we will be dealing will be skin flora ( ie Staph. epi. from the donor's skin and Gram negative rods). I hope that someone may have some constructive ideas for us Blood Bankers. Thanks. Ierachmiel Daskal M.D. PhD. FCAP, FASCP Chairman Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (215) 456-6126 Pager: 2-3559 daskali@einstein.edu The information (e-mail message and any attachments hereto) contained herein is confidential, intended solely for the addressee(s) named above and may be subject to the attorney-client or attorney work product privileges. Any unauthorized access, use, reproduction, disclosure, distribution or dissemination is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately and destroy the e-mail. Your cooperation is anticipated.Received on Mon Feb 9 15:58:00 2004
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