Could the frequency of lipaemic donations be reduced by educational activities?

have stimulated us to present our own experiences in the investigation, surveillance and prevention of this problem. The results presented are based on macroscopic plasma examination, and the criteria for evaluating lipaemia remained unchanged throughout the study period. Results of our 1998 study 3 revealed a higher frequency of lipaemic plasma in middle-aged and elderly donors and in those presenting for blood collection in the afternoon. The study was conducted from 1 August 1997 to 31 July 1998. During the study period, 58,306 plasma units were manufactured from blood collected from 38,023 donors. A total of 1,540 (2.64%) plasma units (intended for clinical use and for fractionation) were declared non-conforming because of lipaemia. The mean age of donors with lipaemia was 40 years, as compared with the mean age of 32 years in all donors during the study period. The frequency of lipaemic plasma according to timing of the blood collection and donors' age is shown in Table I. Along with the obvious continuous increase in the frequency of lipaemic donations recorded from the morning to the afternoon, χ 2 -test confirmed the statistical significance of differences in the prevalence of lipaemia between donations collected before and after 2:00 p.m. (1.44% vs. 3.93%; P<0.001; OR=2.8). The effect of blood collection timing on the frequency of lipaemic donations was investigated again in 2010, yielding almost identical results and statistically significant difference (1.49% and 3.68% of lipaemic donations before and after 2:00 p.m., respectively; P<0.001; OR=2.45). Since 1998, lipaemia of fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) for clinical use is one of quality indicators at CITM. The decision to monitor lipaemia frequency on FFP units for clinical use instead of on the overall plasma units manufactured (which also include plasma units intended for fractionation) was based on the more stringent criteria for macroscopic FFP assessment, according to which even slight turbidity is considered as a non-conformity. During the 1998-2003 period, an incremental frequency of lipaemic FFP units was recorded, as illustrated in Figure 1. This increase was due to a number of factors, mostly an increase in the mean age of the donors and a larger number of donors presenting for blood donation in the afternoon.