In vitro quality control of red blood cell concentrates outdated in clinical practice.

The properties of red blood cell (RBC) concentrates stored in different additive solutions have been previously examined under laboratory conditions at the end of shelf-life. However, whether these data are representative for RBC units used in clinical practice has not been shown. Therefore, we examined 164 RBC units from six manufacturers outdated after clinical usage in a hospital-based transfusion service for cellular content, hemolysis, adenosin triphosphate, 2,3-DPG, pH, oxygen saturation and levels of beta-thromboglobulin and proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL) 1beta (IL-1), IL-6, IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha).