Fig. 1.

CT results obtained using NATEM. WHB is fresh, unrefrigerated whole blood (full square), full circles designate reconstituted whole blood using platelets stored for 1 day, circles with dot designate reconstituted whole blood using platelets stored for 3 days and empty circles designate reconstituted whole blood using platelets stored for 5 days. The X-axis shows the duration of storage of PRBC units used to reconstitute whole blood.

There was no statistically significant difference between the CT obtained usingfresh whole blood and packed cells aged up to 14 days. When packed cells stored for longer than 14 days were used, the CT decreased significantly (p < 0.0001). The CT decreases as a function of platelet age in a statistically significant manner (p < 0.0001).