Abstract
Background and Objectives
Platelet concentrates are the most vulnerable blood products with the shortest shelf life. The aim was to assess the quality of produced platelet concentrates in the East Azerbaijan. In addition, the quality of products stored in the blood center was compared by products stored in one hospital during the period of five days.
 
Materials and Methods
In this descriptive study, thirty random donor platelet concentrates during 3 months from April to August 2015 were enrolled in the study. They were randomly classified into two groups, half were sent to the hospital and half remained in the blood center. The changes of their quality (platelet count, WBC count, MPV, pH, bacterial contamination, and CD62P and CD63 expression levels) were examined in the first, third and fifth days of storage in each group and comparison was made by accomplishing the paired sample t-test and t-test as deemed appropriate.
 
Results
All PCs on the first day met the national standard criteria; however, the quality parameters decreased significantly during storage. In addition there were no significant differences in the storage related changes in the quality between the blood center and hospital.
 
Conclusions 
The quality of PCs produced in the blood center decreased during the storage time. By improving the storage conditions in the blood centers, it might be possible to extend the storage time of PCs by an acceptable quality. The significant difference was not observed between the platelets stored in the blood center compared to that stored in the hospital.   
 
Key words: Platelet Transfusion, Quality Control, Blood Platelets, Platelet Count