The Level of Coagulation Factors in Fresh Frozen Plasma in Rwanda

Abstract

Fresh frozen plasma (FFP) is indicated in the treatment and prevention of bleeding disorders associated with insufficient management of massive blood loss, liver disease, disseminated intravascular coagulation or reverse anticoagulant therapy. FFP is therefore used in transfusion medicine but its storage deteriorates with time depending on conditions and time which has never been evaluated in Rwanda. Therefore this study was aimed at determining the levels of coagulation factors in fresh frozen plasma stored up to the period of three months under -18 o prospective study was conducted and a total of 18 FFP samples were collected from Kigali, Butare and Ruhengeri blood donor centres during the period between August and November 2013. A total of 72 samples were analysed at baseline, after one, two and three months of storage. Samples were analyzed for coagulation factors, prothrombin time and activated partial thrombin time using an automated ACL 7000 coagulation analyzer. One-way ANOVA test was used to compare means at 95% confidence interval and results were considered statistically significant if p-value ≤0.05. There was a significant decrease in fibrinogen 10% ( p-value .002), FII 8% (p-value = .003) , FV 16% (p-value <.001), FVII 13.5% (p-value < .001), FX 14.9% ( p-value < .001), FXIII 14.8% ( p- value < .001), ATIII 6.7% ( p < .001) and PC 7% (p-value < 0.003), from baseline to three months of FFP storage. However, there was change in the levels of other coagulation factors and inherited inhibitors were not significant. Findings from this study confirmed that all coagulation factors and inhibitors in plasma are still retained under minus 18ºC up to three months. Nevertheless, there is a need to evaluate further possible retention of these factors up to 12 months of storage. C. A crossectional