Research on extending shelf life of platelets to seven days at Karnal hospital

Parveen Arora

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Tribune News Service

Karnal, October 24

The Karnal Regional Blood Transfusion Centre of Civil Hospital is going to begin research work on extending the shelf life of platelets storage from five to seven days.

Stored for 5 days

Platelets are usually stored for up to five days prior to the transfusion, but we are going to start a research work to increase its shelf life to seven days. — Dr Verma, Regional blood transfusion officer

A PhD student, Anju Singh, of Desh Bhagat University, Mandi Gobindgarh, Punjab, will begin the research work in the centre under the guidance of Dr Sanjay Verma, Regional Blood Transfusion Officer, for which the Health Department has given permission.

The authorities claimed that extending the shelf life would help in reducing the wastage of platelets and providing it to more patients in need.

“The study may also help in using blood platelets to any patient irrespective to their blood group status by studying the molecular characterisation of platelets. Besides, during the research work, the increase in platelet count on fixed intervals of three, five and seven days on different patients, and study for platelets count, PH, size of platelets, culture to check infection and other developments will also be conducted,” said Dr Verma.

“Platelets are usually stored for up to five days prior to the transfusion, but we are going to start a research work to increase its shelf life to seven days by adopting platelet-additive solutions. We are hopeful to achieve the target in this study in a year,” he added.