This product offers multiple benefits for patients, including improved product sterility, standardised dose, extended product expiry and faster product issuing turnaround time.
Cryoprecipitate (cryo) is a blood product prepared from fresh frozen plasma (FFP), which is rich in plasma proteins, primarily Factor VIII, fibrinogen, fibronectin and Factor XIII. It is used for clotting factor replacement in patients with disseminated intravascular coagulation, inherited fibrinogen disorders and massive transfusions, amongst other indications.
Cryo is produced by thawing FFP at 2 – 6 °C, which allows the plasma proteins to precipitate out of solution. The plasma bags are then centrifuged at high speed forcing the cryo-paste to adhere to the sides of the bag, and the remaining cryo-poor plasma is drained into a second bag. The cryo-paste is resuspended in a nominal volume of plasma and frozen.
Cryo is currently produced at WCBS as individual bags of 100 IU units per unit. Ten cryoprecipitate bags are typically pooled together at the Blood Banks after thawing at 37 °C to create adult dose of 1000IU. The pooling process in the Blood Banks is cumbersome and time-consuming. A process improvement has been validated to pre-pool 5 cryoprecipitate using a pooling bag system, where sterile welding is used to preserve sterility. This process standardises the dose with a volume of 45-75ml, and allows for the turnaround time of product issuing to be quicker. In addition to this, the thawed cryoprecipitate expiry may be extended from 4 to 6 hours, and meets international regulatory product requirements – AABB (FVIII ≥400 IU/ pool & Fibrinogen ≥750 mg/ pool) and JPAC (FVIII ≥350 IU/ pool & Fibrinogen ≥700 mg/ pool).
Cryoprecipitate dosages can be viewed in the Clinical Guidelines for the Use of Blood and Blood Products in South Africa, Sixth Edition, page 53.
For more information about the upcoming cryoprecipitate product, contact Shaldine Sutton, Head – Processing, Inventory and Reagents (shaldine@wcbs.org.za)
