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Multicenter Study
. 2022 Feb;37(1):31-39.
doi: 10.1002/jca.21948. Epub 2021 Nov 19.

Source plasma deferral trends: A 3-year analysis of 255 centers in the United States

Amy E Schmidt  1 , Jaime MacKercher  1 , Barbara Youngling  1 , Toby L Simon  1
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Source plasma deferral trends: A 3-year analysis of 255 centers in the United States

Amy E Schmidt et al. J Clin Apher. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Plasma contains many important proteins of therapeutic interest including albumin, clotting factors, and antibodies. Source plasma (SP) is in great demand particularly due to a shortage of immunoglobulin. To better understand how to increase supply, we examined SP donor deferrals for the previous 3 years.

Study design: This is a description of donor deferrals at 255 plasma donation centers in the United States for April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2020.

Results: A total of 4 587 923 events were evaluated for the 3-year period 2017-2020. There were 873 227 deferrals analyzed for 2017-2018, 1 765 582 in 2018-2019, and 1 949 114 for 2019-2020. The most common deferral each year was for unacceptable blood pressure (BP) or pulse which comprised 27.9%, 28.2%, and 28.3% of deferrals in 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020, respectively. The second most common cause of deferral was for unacceptable hematocrit which comprised 14.1% of deferrals in 2017-2018, and 16.0% in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. The majority of these deferred donors had low hematocrits and were predominately (~80%) female. Deferral for unacceptable total protein comprised a smaller percentage (~4%) of deferrals.

Discussion: Most donor deferrals were due to unacceptable screening results, particularly high BP, elevated pulse, low protein, and low hematocrit. Although rates of deferrals in other categories have been slightly increasing over time, they comprise a small percentage. Donor education regarding healthy lifestyle choices may improve overall donor health, decrease deferrals, and increase SP supply.

Keywords: John Wiley; donor adverse event; donor deferral; plasma; source plasma.

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Conflict of interest statement

All of the authors are employees of CSL Plasma.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Screening donor deferrals. The absolute number of deferrals across all 255 donor centers are depicted in this bar graph. The vertical axis depicts the number of donor deferrals and the horizontal axis describes the reason for deferral. High pulse represents the largest number of deferrals, followed by low female hematocrit and high diastolic BP. Grey bars represent 2017‐2018, diagonal lines represent 2018‐2019, and black bars represent 2019‐2020. BP, blood pressure; SYS, systolic; DIA, diastolic
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Donor adverse events. The most common types of DAEs between 2017 and 2020 are shown in the graph. The most common type of DAE was hypotensive prefaint reactions with no loss of consciousness. Grey bars represent 2017‐2018, diagonal lines represent 2018‐2019, and black bars represent 2019‐2020. DAE, Donor adverse events; LOC, loss of consciousness
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Infectious disease testing. The absolute numbers of positive infectious disease tests for each respective year are shown in the bar graph. The HCV antibody testing was positive more frequently as compared to other tests followed by HIV 1/2 antibody and FTA tests. Grey bars represent 2017‐2018, diagonal lines represent 2018‐2019, and black bars represent 2019‐2020. FTA, fluorescent treponemal antibody; HBSAG, hepatitis B surface antigen; NAT, nucleic acid test; PCR, polymerase chain reaction
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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