title: Rationale for medical director acceptance or rejection of allogeneic plateletpheresis donors with underlying medical disorders.
abstract: A survey was completed by 25 medical directors at different institutions performing plateletpheresis. The practices of these 25 physicians were analyzed regarding the acceptance/rejection of plateletpheresis donors with a history of cardiac disease/surgery, seizures/epilepsy, cancer, or autoimmune diseases. Although available medical literature documents little risk of these disorders either to donors (i.e., donation reactions) or to transfusion recipients (i.e., disease transmission), up to 24% of medical directors outright reject some of these potential donors while others accept patients/donors with these illnesses, providing they meet certain medical/health criteria. Acceptance/rejection of individuals with medical disorders has relevance for the availability of the blood supply and blood product shortages because several million Americans, diagnosed with these illnesses, represent a sizable pool of potential blood and platelet donors.
authors.affiliation: University of Iowa DeGowin Blood Center, University of Iowa Hospitals, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA 52242-1182, USA. ronald-strauss@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: Ronald G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Strauss
mesh_terms: D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000097:blood; D001782:Blood Donors; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000097:blood; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood; D010983:Plateletpheresis