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. 2011 Jan;51(1):191-7.
doi: 10.1111/j.1537-2995.2010.02799.x.

Demographic characteristics and prevalence of serologic markers among blood donors who use confidential unit exclusion (CUE) in São Paulo, Brazil: implications for modification of CUE policies in Brazil

Cesar de Almeida-Neto  1 , Jing Liu, David J Wright, Alfredo Mendrone-Junior, Pedro L Takecian, Yu Sun, Joao Eduardo Ferreira, Dalton de Alencar Fischer Chamone, Michael P Busch, Ester Cerdeira Sabino; NHLBI Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study-II (REDS-II), International Component
Affiliations

Demographic characteristics and prevalence of serologic markers among blood donors who use confidential unit exclusion (CUE) in São Paulo, Brazil: implications for modification of CUE policies in Brazil

Cesar de Almeida-Neto et al. Transfusion. 2011 Jan.

Abstract

Background: This study evaluated demographic profiles and prevalence of serologic markers among donors who used confidential unit exclusion (CUE) to assess the effectiveness of CUE and guide public policies regarding the use of CUE for enhancing safety versus jeopardizing the blood supply by dropping CUE.

Study design and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of whole blood donations at a large public blood center in São Paulo from July 2007 through June 2009, compared demographic data, and confirmed serologic results among donors who used and who have never used CUE (CUE never).

Results: There were 265,550 whole blood units collected from 181,418 donors from July 2007 through June 2009. A total of 9658 (3.6%) units were discarded, 2973 (1.1%) because CUE was used at the current donation (CUE now) and 6685 (2.5%) because CUE was used in the past (CUE past). The CUE rate was highest among donors with less than 8 years of education (odds ratio [OR], 2.78; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.51-3.08). CUE now donations were associated with higher positive infectious disease marker rates than CUE never donations (OR, 1.41; CI, 1.13-1.77), whereas CUE past donations were not (OR, 1.04; CI, 0.75-1.45).

Conclusion: The CUE process results in a high rate of unit discard. CUE use on an individual donation appears predictive of a high-risk marker-positive donation and, thus, appears to contribute modestly to blood safety. The policy of discarding units from donors who have previously CUE-positive donations does not improve safety and should be discontinued.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest relevant to the manuscript submitted to Transfusion

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Touch screen computer showing the Confidential Unit Exclusion Options. If the donor were at HIV risk he/she should touch SIM (YES), if not he/she should press NÃO (NO). CUE option has different colors to help illiterate donors to properly answer the question and is a mandatory step before donation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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