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Releasing and storing components

16 min

Skills you'll build4 skills
  • Verify donor testing and traceability before releasing a component
  • Store and transport each component at its labeled temperature and agitation
  • Determine component expiration after processing or system entry
  • Calculate red-cell processing recovery from volume and hematocrit

At the bench: Check component identity, storage, and suitability before issue

Try first

Try first

At final labeling, the Donation Identification Number on a red-cell unit ends in 004821. The testing record shows every required marker nonreactive for a donation ending in 004812. What happens to the unit?

Keep going to see the reasoning.

Keep going to see the reasoning.

Right. Keep going to follow the reasoning.

Keep going to see the reasoning.

Get the idea

Use the explanation to check your first decision.

Requirements for release

A collected unit stays in quarantine until its record is complete. Routine release needs every required infectious-disease result, confirmed ABO and D types, and a final label that links the component to its donation.1 The ISBT 128 Donation Identification Number (DIN) is unique to one donation and follows it onto every sample, component and record.2 A repeatedly reactive, unresolved or missing result keeps the donation and every component made from it linked and in quarantine. A final label can be printed while a test is still pending, so release is checked against the record.1,3

Storage and dating by component

ComponentStorageDating
Red cells1–6 °C, transported at 1–10 °CSet by the anticoagulant and additive, 42 days with AS-1, AS-3, AS-5 or AS-7
Platelets20–24 °C with continuous gentle agitation5 days, up to 7 with an approved bacterial-risk strategy
Granulocytes20–24 °C without agitation24 hours after collection
Frozen plasma and cryoprecipitate−18 °C or colder1 year

Cold-stored platelets are a separate labeled product with their own preparation, dating and use.3,5 A component found outside its labeled conditions is quarantined and dispositioned under the facility's procedure.4

Open systems and expiration

A sealed collection set is a closed system. Opening it generally limits the component to 24 hours at 1 to 6 °C or 4 hours at 20 to 24 °C. The component then expires at the new limit or its existing expiration, whichever comes first.3 Thawed Fresh Frozen Plasma stored at 1 to 6 °C expires in 24 hours. Thawed cryoprecipitate expires in 6 hours. A pool made in an open system expires 4 hours after entry and never later than the original post-thaw time.3

Processing recovery

Deglycerolization and washing replace supernatant, so the suspension volume can stay close to its starting value as red cells are lost. Recovery therefore compares red-cell volumes. Red-cell volume (mL) = suspension volume (mL) × hematocrit (L/L). Processing recovery (%) = postprocessing red-cell volume ÷ preprocessing red-cell volume × 100. Processing recovery counts the cells retained through processing. The 24-hour posttransfusion recovery is a different measurement, made in the recipient. Recovery is one of several product specifications reviewed before release.4

Follow the bench demonstration

Sources for this step
References
  1. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Title 21, §§606.121, 606.122, 610.40, 610.41, 610.53, 640.5, and 640.25. Accessed September 27, 2026. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-F
  2. International Council for Commonality in Blood Banking Automation. ISBT 128 Standard Technical Specification. Version 6.2.2. April 2023. Accessed September 27, 2026.
  3. Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies. Circular of Information for the Use of Human Blood and Blood Components. June 2024. Accessed September 27, 2026.
  4. Bloch EM, Campbell-Lee S, McKenna DH Jr, Montemayor-Garcia C, Schwartz J, Shaz B, Storry J, eds. Technical Manual. 22nd ed. AABB; 2026.
  5. US Food and Drug Administration. Bacterial Risk Control Strategies for Blood Collection Establishments and Transfusion Services to Enhance the Safety and Availability of Platelets for Transfusion: Guidance for Industry. December 2020. Accessed September 27, 2026.

Watch one

Read each decision and its explanation.

A frozen red-cell unit is deglycerolized. Before processing it measures 310 mL at a hematocrit of 0.72 L/L. The final suspension measures 290 mL at a hematocrit of 0.62 L/L.

What is the processing recovery?

  1. Red-cell volume before = 310 mL × 0.72 = 223.2 mL.

    Hematocrit is a volume fraction, so suspension volume times hematocrit gives red-cell volume.

  2. Red-cell volume after = 290 mL × 0.62 = 179.8 mL.

    Calculate the final red-cell volume the same way, with its own hematocrit.

  3. Recovery = 179.8 mL ÷ 223.2 mL × 100 = 80.555…%, reported as 80.6%.

    Recovery is the percentage of red cells retained after processing.

  4. Check against the shortcut: 290 ÷ 310 × 100 = 93.5% would overstate recovery by about 13 percentage points.

    Processing replaces supernatant, so a ratio of suspension volumes does not show the red-cell loss.

  5. Compare 80.6% with the product's recovery specification, then review the rest of the processing record before release.

    Recovery is one specification among several.

Recovery = (290 mL × 0.62) ÷ (310 mL × 0.72) × 100 = 179.8 ÷ 223.2 × 100 = 80.6%.

Practice this skill

Your turn

Problem 1 of 3 · Hints available

A donation's hepatitis C virus nucleic acid test could not be completed because the assay run was invalid. The red cells and plasma already carry final ABO and D labels. What is the routine-release status of these components?

Incorrect. ABO and D confirmation is one release requirement. The infectious-disease screen is another, and it has no valid result yet.

Correct. Routine release needs every required test result, so the unit and every component prepared from it stay linked and quarantined until a valid result is recorded. A reactive result would keep the donation out of routine release under federal rules.

Incorrect. The unresolved screen applies to the whole donation, so every component prepared from it stays in quarantine with it.

Hint
  1. Ask what routine release needs from the testing record.
  2. An invalid run gives no result for this donation. Ask which components came from it.

Review Donor-unit testing

Problem 2 of 3 · Hints available

Cryoprecipitate is thawed at 09:00 with a 6-hour post-thaw limit, then pooled by open-system entry at 13:00 with a 4-hour entry limit. With no stricter product rule, which expiration applies?

Correct. The thawed cryoprecipitate expires at 09:00 + 6 hours = 15:00. The open-system pool's own limit would be 17:00, and pooling cannot extend the original post-thaw expiration, so the earlier time applies.

Incorrect. The pool's own limit, 13:00 + 4 hours, falls after the original 15:00 post-thaw expiration. The component expires at whichever time comes first.

Incorrect. This restarts the 6-hour post-thaw period at pooling (13:00 + 6 hours). The thaw time sets the post-thaw limit, and later processing can only shorten it.

Hint
  1. Work out the post-thaw expiration first.
  2. Then work out the pool's own limit and compare the two times.

Review Dating and system integrity

Problem 3 of 3 · On your own

A washed red-cell component measures 280 mL at a hematocrit of 0.74 L/L before processing and 260 mL at 0.64 L/L afterward. What is the processing recovery, to one decimal place?

Show the answer

80.3 %

Red-cell volume before = 280 mL × 0.74 = 207.2 mL. Red-cell volume after = 260 mL × 0.64 = 166.4 mL. Recovery = 166.4 ÷ 207.2 × 100 = 80.3%. Dividing the suspension volumes, 260 ÷ 280, gives 92.9%, which does not account for the red cells lost in processing.

Review Red-cell recovery calculation

Use it

Read the case evidence, then make each decision. The step is complete without it.

  • 06:30 on September 27, the start of the day shift at the transfusion service.
  • An apheresis platelet unit labeled for 20 to 24 °C with agitation sits on a shelf of the 1 to 6 °C red-cell refrigerator. The refrigerator log shows it went in at 23:10.
  • A cooler of red cells arrives from the blood supplier. Its validated transport range is 1 to 10 °C, and the arrival reading is 7 °C.
  • At 14:00 a red-cell unit with 18 days of dating left is entered for washing in an open system. It goes into the 1 to 6 °C refrigerator.
Decision 1 of 3

What happens to the platelet unit?

Conventional platelets are labeled for 20 to 24 °C with continuous gentle agitation. After more than 7 hours in the refrigerator, the unit goes to quarantine for disposition under the facility's procedure.

Returning it to the agitator does not undo the hours it spent at 1 to 6 °C. It no longer meets the conditions on its label.

Stored a component under red-cell conditions

Conventional platelets need 20 to 24 °C with continuous gentle agitation, granulocytes 20 to 24 °C without agitation, and frozen plasma −18 °C or colder. Refrigerating conventional platelets or agitating granulocytes takes the component outside its labeled conditions. Cold-stored platelets are a separate labeled product with their own dating and use.

Cold-stored platelets are a separate approved product with their own preparation, label and dating. A conventional unit left in the cold does not become one.

Review Temperature and transport

Decision 2 of 3

What happens to the red cells in the cooler?

1 to 6 °C is the storage range. The validated transport range for red cells is 1 to 10 °C, and 7 °C falls inside it.

The red cells arrived within their 1 to 10 °C transport range. They go into refrigerated storage, and the arrival temperature is recorded.

The units stayed within their transport conditions and were never opened. Their labeled expiration does not change.

Review Temperature and transport

Decision 3 of 3

When do the washed red cells expire?

Washing in an open system sets a new limit. The earlier of the new limit and the original expiration applies.

Let a later processing step extend the expiration

Opening a system sets a new limit, commonly 24 hours at 1 to 6 °C or 4 hours at 20 to 24 °C, and the component expires at the new limit or its existing expiration, whichever comes first. Cryoprecipitate thawed at 09:00 with a 6-hour limit and pooled in an open system at 13:00 still expires at 15:00.

The 4-hour limit applies to a component opened and kept at 20 to 24 °C. These red cells are stored at 1 to 6 °C.

An open system at 1 to 6 °C allows 24 hours: 14:00 on September 27 plus 24 hours. That falls well before the original expiration, so it applies.

Review Dating and system integrity

Each decision was made against the conditions on the component label. The platelets spent the night outside their labeled storage conditions, the red cells in the cooler arrived within their transport range, and washing in an open system gave the red cells a new, earlier expiration.

For reference

Sources checked