[Donors selection and retrieval of units in an umbilical cord blood bank].
OBJECTIVE
Umbilical cord blood (UCB) contains hematopoietic stem cells that can be used as an alternative to bone marrow transplantation in certain cases. This study was designed to investigate the influence of obstetric, neonatal and collection factors on the hematopoietic content of UCB donations.


METHODS
A total of 391 consecutive maternal-neonatal pairs were evaluated during the prepartum period in the maternity ward at La Fe University Hospital. Maternal, neonatal and collection factors influencing cord blood quality measured as volume, total nucleated cells count, CD34+ cells and colony forming units were analyzed in 2,000 UCB collections.


RESULTS
32.5% of UCB potential donors were excluded, mainly due to obstetrical reasons. Among the collected units, 56% were discarded before cryopreservation, mainly due to low cell counts. In the multivariate analysis, placental weight was a predictor variable for total nucleated cells, CD34+ cells and colony forming units, while the mode of collection influenced the total nucleated cells and CD34+ cell counts.


CONCLUSIONS
The collection of UCB units before placental delivery (using the birth weight as an estimation of the placental weight) could be added to standard cord blood donors criteria in order to improve the bank efficiency.
Solves Alcaina
Pilar
P
Banco de Sangre de Cordón Umbilical, Centro de Transfusión, Valencia, España. solves_pil@gva.es
Perales Marín
Alfredo
A
Mirabet Lis
Vicente
V
Brik Spinelli
Maia
M
Soler García
M Angeles
MA
Roig Oltra
Roberto
R
D000328:Adult; D001771:Blood Banks / Q000592:standards*; D001782:Blood Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D000094902:Blood Banking / Q000379:methods*