For quality control, the Brazilian government hemotherapy system is structured in State and Regional Blood Transfusion Services. Quality control includes careful selection of donors, production and preservation of blood components, laboratorial analyses and procedures to guarantee adequate supply to transfusion patients. Red cell units for transfusion should be evaluated for post-transfusion survival of erythrocytes. The aim of this work was to study the percentage of hemolysis, the erythrocyte morphology, methemoglobin (MetHb), glutathione (GSH), and adenosine triphosphate concentrations (ATP), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6-PD) Activity. Nineteen red cell units maintained in bags containing SAGM, prepared from whole blood units were studied in the Quality Control Laboratory of the Center of Hematology and Hemotherapy of Paraná (Hemepar). The units proved to have appropriate morphology and cellular integrity indexes and low hemolysis rates. Starting from an analysis of recent scientific developments on norms recommended by the Brazilian Health Inspection Service (RDC 153/2004 of the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária - Anvisa), routine activities of Hemepar and our results, we recommend monitoring for storage degradation. Two-week inspections of red cell units, including an evaluation of discocyte percentages, hemolysis indexes based on the concentration of extracellular cyanomethemoglobin and MCV, MCH and MCHC; metaHb and GSH concentrations, may contribute to the quality of hemotherapy.
Blood preservation; quality control; erythrocyte transfusion; hemotherapy service
