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Random donor platelet (RDP) is not sufficient to improve the platelet count in most thrombocytopenic patients. Single donor platelet (SDP) or buffy coat pooled platelet (BCPP) are the two choices to provide a full therapeutic dose of platelets. However, there are constraints in the preparation of SDP due to stringent donor selection procedure, time required for procedure, and need of special expensive equipments and kits. BCPP is widely practiced, especially in the European countries, since 1995. In India, we decided to adopt the procedure of buffy coat pooling of platelets, especially for economically backward patients and for emergencies. This study was prospectively conducted from September 2009 to September 2010. A total of 129 units of BCPP [tested prior for viral markers by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and individual donor nucleic acid amplification test (ID-NAT)] were issued to 129 patients suffering from dengue and were included in this study. For comparison between efficacy of SDP and BCCP, patients were divided into two groups of 50 each. The post-transfusion platelet counts of the patients were noted after 2 hours of transfusion for each type of component. The platelet yield varied from 2.5 to 4.4 Χ 1011 in BCPP samples. The samples analyzed were sterile without any contamination. The different biochemical parameters were analyzed in detail. The observed post-transfusion platelet recovery and corrected count increment (CCI) at 1 hour and 24 hours after BCPP transfusion were similar to that after SDP transfusion. Hence, we concluded that BCPP can be a low cost alternative to SDP in the times of emergencies like dengue and non-affordability by the patient for SDP.

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Introduction:For nucleic acid testing (NAT) of blood donations, either the blood samples can be pooled together in a batch of six or eight prior to testing (mini-pool-NAT [MP-NAT]), or the tests can be run on every individual sample (individual donor-NAT [ID-NAT]). It has been debated in various studies whether pooling of samples results in decreased sensitivity of detection as the volume of individual samples gets lesser in a pool. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of dilution on the sensitivity of tests.Materials and Methods:The study was performesd on nine plasma samples which were hepatitis B reactive exclusively by Procleix Ultrio Plus and not by Procleix Ultrio or serology. These nine exclusive UltrioPlus ID-NAT yield samples were diluted in 1:2, 1:4. 1:6 and 1:8 dilutions using previously tested negative plasma and each dilution of every sample along with archived undiluted sample were retested in three replicates with Procleix Ultrio Plus Assay.Results:Among NAT yield samples, 88.88% of the samples were detected when retested in ID-NAT in undiluted form. Samples with higher viral load (sample 5 and 6) were detected by all dilutions. When samples with viral load below 20 IU/mL were tested in dilutions of 1:6 or 1:8, only 9 out of 27 replicates (33.33%) were detected. This means that more than 67% of low viral load samples were missed by MP-NAT of 1:6 or 1:8 dilution out of total NAT yield samples.Conclusion:Individual Donor NAT is ideal methodology for NAT as dilution due to pooling may miss samples with low viral load as evident in this study.