Safety analysis of extended platelet shelf-life with large-volume delayed sampling on BACT/ALERT VIRTUO in Australia

A. Cheng, A. Das, K. Chaw, P.M. Dennington, C.E. Styles, Iain B. Gosbell

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Transfusion-transmitted bacterial infection (TTBI) is the leading cause of transfusion-transmitted infections. Platelet components are more likely to be associated with bacterial contamination due to their storage requirements. Australian Red Cross Lifeblood introduced the bacterial contamination screening (BCS) of all platelet components in 2008. The process was recently updated with the use of BACT/ALERT VIRTUO, a large-volume delayed sampling (LVDS) protocol and extending platelet shelf-life to seven days. This article describes the results from the routine BCS of platelet components in Australia. Use of VIRTUO has resulted in lower false-positive rates, reducing wastage and improving platelet inventory. Our findings show that the combination of LVDS and VIRTUO improves the safety of platelet transfusions through earlier time to detection, especially for pathogenic bacterial species. Pathogenic bacteria grew within 24 h of incubation with a clear delineation between pathogenic and non-pathogenic species. The data show this protocol is very safe, with no TTBI cases during this time. There were no TTBI reports in recipients of platelet components that subsequently had a positive culture with Cutibacterium species, probably due to the low pathogenic potential of these organisms and slow replication in aerobic platelet bags. We conclude there is no advantage in incubating culture bottles beyond five days.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2346
Number of pages12
JournalMicroorganisms
Volume11
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2023

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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