Acrodose: 5 Questions with Dr. Rachel Beddard, MD

Dr. Beddard is Medical Director at South Texas Blood & Tissue Center.

"5 Questions with..." is a regular series of questions and answers with blood industry thought leaders.  This installment looks at Acrodose, an FDA-approved whole blood derived alternative to apheresis Single Donor Platelets.  Bloodbuy is not affiliated with Haemonetics, the provider of the Acrodose system, although Acrodose products are available on the Bloodbuy platform.

ACRODOSE POOLS SAME-TYPE PLATELETS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE DISCARDED FROM WBD
IMAGE CREDIT: PALL CORPORATION, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ACRODOSE IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF HAEMONETICS

Q: Why do you think pooled platelets, and Acrodose in particular, have not reached wider acceptance?  

I think our industry did such a great job in selling the hospitals on single donor platelets that it will take awhile before hospitals are willing to go back.  I also think the blood centers don’t do a lot of education around that topic with their hospital customers.

Q: Would you consider Acrodose clinically equivalent to single donor platelets?  

Yes

Q: How valid are concerns regarding increased risk of viral contamination in Acrodose? 

I would have agreed with those concerns decades ago.  However, our donor screening testing has progressed to such a high level of sensitivity that it becomes a non-sequitur to discuss the difference between getting exposed to one donor versus getting exposed to 5 or 6 donors.  How would you address those concerns?  I would talk about the very low residual risks associated with exposure to the blood donor. 

Q: Are there circumstances where Acrodose or SDP are preferred?  

For a patient in need of an HLA matched platelet product, it is most efficient to collect a single donor product from the donor who matches that patient.  For patients that are platelet refractory and do NOT respond to HLA matched donors, it is my experience that pooled platelet products give the patient the best chance of getting an increase in their platelet count.

Q: What are the regulatory changes that you would like to see regarding Acrodose?

[I] would want Acrodose platelets to have identical clearances as SDPs (pathogen inactivation, extension of dating with additional bacterial detection testing, etc).

Questions by Brian Witte, Ph.D., Research & Development at Bloodbuy