Hydroxyethyl Starch and Dexamethasone as an Adjunct to Leukocyte Separation with the IBM Blood Cell Separator

A total of 67 leukaphereses were performed with the IBM blood cell separator (BCS) on 50 healthy donors for the purpose of obtaining a clinically useful number of granulocytes for infusion into patients with acute leukemia and granulocytopenia accompanied by severe infection. The pretreatment of donors with dexamethasone and the addition of hydroxyethyl starch (HES) to the input line of the BCS significantly increased the total number of granulocytes collected, as compared to the total number of granulocytes harvested either by dexamethasone pretreatment only or by the absence of dexamethasone and HES. A mean of 2.03 × 1010, 1.58 × 1010, and 1.07 × 1010 total granulocytes was collected by the HES plus dexamethasone, by dexamethasone alone and with neither HES or dexamethasone, respectively. The efficiency of cell collection, as evidenced by the total number of granulocytes harvested per liter of blood processed, was also significantly improved by the combined use of HES and dexamethasone. The results of the present study demonstrates that a clinically useful number of granulocytes can be harvested and made available for supportive therapy to patients experiencing granulocytopenia caused by malignant disease or its treatment. 1974 AABB