Red Cell 2,3 DPG, ATP, and Creatine Levels in Preserved Red Cells and in Patients with Red Cell Mass Deficits or with Cardiopulmonary Insufficiency

Abstract

The therapeutic effectiveness of red cell preservation (either by liquid or freezing procedures) has been evaluated primarily by the measurements of 24-hour posttransfusion survival (Jones et al., 1957; Szymanski and Valeri, 1968). Since the main reason for transfusing preserved red cells is to increase the oxygen carrying capacity of the recipient’s blood, the circulating preserved red cells should at the time of transfusion have normal oxygen uptake and oxyhemog-obin dissociation characteristics. Valtis and Kennedy, (1954) observed that human red cells stored in acid-citrate-dextrose (ACD, National Institutes of Health, Formula A) longer than one week had progressive shifts in oxyhemoglobin toward higher oxygen affinities. Following transfusion, the red cells that exhibited this higher in vitro affinity for oxygen were incapable, usually for several hours, of releasing in vivo as large a quantity of oxygen to tissue as did normal red cells. The time required for in vivo restoration of the red cells’ oxygen affinity to normal was related to both the volume and the duration of storage of the transfused blood.