Cryoprecipitate versus commercial fibrinogen concentrate in patients who occasionally require a therapeutic supply of fibrinogen: risk comparison in the case of an emerging transfusion-transmitted infection.

A probabilistic model was used to compare cryoprecipitate to viral inactivated, commercial fibrinogen concentrate to evaluate with regard to the recipient's risk of exposure to an emergent AIDS-like epidemic. In patients who occasionally need a therapeutic dose of fibrinogen, commercial fibrinogen would be marginally safer than cryoprecipitate if the new pathogen were sensitive to inactivation. But there is a potential high risk of exposure if the emerging agent withstands inactivation. In most of the analyzed scenarios, cryoprecipitate is safer than commercial fibrinogen as long as the odds that the new agent is sensitive to inactivation are lower than 1.000 to 1.