Impact of Treatment With Amotosalen on the Practice of Platelet Transfusion in Adult Heart Surgery

Blood safety is ensured by the rigorous selection of donors and biological tests. However, infectious agents can escape this detection and be transmitted to recipients during transfusion. Amotosalen is a derivative of psoralens that intercalates with nucleic acids and inactivates them after UV exposure; it therefore makes it possible to inhibit any replication of an infectious agent present. Preliminary studies have shown its safety and efficacy in preventing the transmission of infectious agents during the administration of labile blood products (fresh frozen plasma and platelet concentrates) as well as the absence of loss of efficacy (absence of loss of pro-aggregating and procoagulant properties) of the transfused products. In addition, there is a significant reduction in side effects for platelet concentrates, especially compared to irradiated concentrates.

Treatment of platelet concentrates with Amotosalen may be responsible for a reduction in the platelet concentration in each concentrate with an overall decrease in efficiency and transfusion yield compared to untreated concentrates.