Production of leucocyte poor blood. A comparison of five different methods.

The efficiency of leucocyte removal and the degree of erythrocyte loss were investigated by five different methods. The methods were: 1) saline washing of red blood cells (RBC) in the cell separator, 2) centrifugation of whole blood in glass bottles followed by removal of plasma and buffy coat by suction. 3) Imugard-Terumo filtration of whole blood, 4) inverse centrifugation of blood in a double plastic bag followed by transferring the RBC to the satellite bag, and 5) sedimentation of RBCs in CPD-dextran followed by dripping the RBCs to another glass bottle. Method no. 5 was clearly the most efficient, containing a mean of 20.8% of the offered leucocytes. After washing in saline three times this could be lowered to 7.0%. Method no. 3 was the second best method, having the lowest degree of erythrocyte loss. Methods no. 2 and 4 are approximately of the same quality. However method no. 1 was bad and can not be recommended for production of leucocyte poor blood in the present modification.