Evaluation of the Fresenius cell separator AS 104 for harvesting peripheral blood stem cells in pediatric patients.
In a single institution trial we carried out 35 peripheral blood stem cell harvesting procedures in 12 children with advanced malignancies to evaluate the procedure's safety and the collection efficiency of the Fresenius blood cell separator AS 104 in a pediatric population.  Despite a significant mean decrease of 21% (+/-8%) in systolic blood pressure after starting the procedure, all children tolerated leukapheresis without any adverse reaction.  After termination of leukapheresis there was a significant decrease of all determined hematological parameters, as compared with pre-harvest values.  The mean mononuclear cell recovery was 64% (+/-26%), and in 25/35 (71%) harvesting procedures the minimum progenitor number required for safe autografting could be obtained by one single leukapheresis.  We conclude that the Fresenius AS 104 blood cell separator provides a high cell yield and is a safe device for leukapheresis in pediatric patients.
Department of Pediatrics, University of Bern, Switzerland.
K
K
Leibundgut
J
J
Muff
A
A
Hirt
H
H
Mitschulat
U E
UE
Nydegger
A R
AR
Lüthy
A
A
Tobler
H P
HP
Wagner
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004869:Equipment Safety; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007937:Leukapheresis / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000628:therapy; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000628:therapy; D012512:Sarcoma, Ewing / Q000628:therapy