Evaluation with the BacT/ALERT microbial detection system of bacterial contamination in autologous blood donation and transfusion

摘要

Dear Sir,Transfusion-transmitted infection (TTI) is one of the major risks of transfusion medicine. Risk of transfusion-related viral infection has been significantly reduced by donor questioning, serologic testing and introduction of the nuclear amplification test for viral genomes. However, the greatest risk of TTI incidents is associated with bacterial contamination (Epstein et al., 1999; Knowles et al., 2011).Autologous blood transfusion can prevent TTI events such as HIV or hepatitis virus infection that can result from allogeneic blood transfusion. Bacterial contamination, however, remains a potential risk even with autologous donation and transfusion, the quality management of which depends on procedures followed in individual medical institutions. We assessed bacterial contamination in autologous blood and current procedures for blood donation at Kobe University Hospital (920 beds).