Incidence of Transfusion Reactions and Retention of Procoagulant and Anticoagulant Factor Activities in Equine Plasma

Background: The extent of preservation of clotting factors and incidence of transfusion reactions to noncommercial equine plasma is not documented.
Hypothesis: Equine frozen plasma would retain its coagulation factor activity within the reference range and the incidence of transfusion reactions would be low.
Animals: Ten plasma donor horses. Fifty clinically ill hospitalized horses receiving plasma were reviewed to determine the incidence of reactions.
Methods: In vitro study and retrospective case review. Plasma was prepared by gravity sedimentation from whole blood refrigerated for 48 hours. The activities of factors VII through XII, antithrombin (AT), and Protein C were measured. Factor activities were compared for plasma samples obtained before blood collection (S0), after 48 hours of gravity sedimentation at 5 °C and after plasma separation (S1), and after 90 days of storage at −20 °C (S90). The medical records of 50 consecutive clinically ill horses receiving frozen plasma were reviewed to determine the incidence of transfusion reactions.
Results: The combined effect of plasma harvest, gravity sedimentation, decantation, and freezing caused significant reductions in factors IX, (43% P = .0013), X, (33% P = .0001), XI, (48% P = .0008), AT, (10% P = .02), and Protein C (26% P = .0001). Activities for all factors analyzed, except factor X, remained within the reference ranges. Transfusion reactions were recorded for 5/50 horses.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: Clotting factors, AT, and Protein C were well preserved. The incidence of reactions to frozen plasma was 10%.