Media release

From: The University of Queensland

Research has proven frozen blood platelets are safe and effective to use on critically injured patients – a breakthrough dramatically extending their shelf life for transfusions from one week to two years.

The results of the decade-long University of Queensland and Australian Red Cross Lifeblood research collaboration will have positive implications for the international management of blood supplies and could save lives in remote areas and war zones.

In a clinical trial with cardiac surgery patients, Director of UQ’s Greater Brisbane Clinical School Professor Michael Reade used platelets that had been frozen at -80 degrees Celsius and found they were only slightly less effective than liquid platelets, and still stopped blood loss.

“Platelet transfusions are used in hospitals when a patient is bleeding significantly, and they save lives on a daily basis, particularly in obstetric and gastrointestinal patients and those who have been injured in accidents or combat zones,” Professor Reade said.

“Platelets are usually stored in liquid plasma at 22 degrees, but they can only be stored for 7 days, mostly due to concerns about deterioration and bacterial growth at this temperature.

“The short shelf life means between 25-33% of platelet units are discarded worldwide, and there are often no platelets available in rural and remote areas, and military hospitals.

“Our study has shown that frozen platelets are safe, and having these platelets available to those in remote areas would be a game changer for these hospitals.

“As someone who serves in the military and who leads the military medicine research program here at UQ, I know just how much of an impact this research could have in combat zones.”

Nearly 400 patients from across 11 Australian hospitals participated in the study, which has also been supported by Monash University and the Australian Defence Force.

“These cardiac surgery patients, identified before their operation as being at risk of platelet transfusion, received either frozen platelets or standard liquid-stored platelets and the outcomes were then compared,” Professor Reade said.

“We found while frozen platelets were safe to use, they were a little less effective at stopping blood loss compared to liquid stored platelets.

“But where there are no other platelets available, it could mean the difference between life and death.”

The results have built on more than ten years of work by UQ and Lifeblood that began in the laboratory and has now translated into hospital practice.

Lifeblood Research Program Leader Associate Professor Denese Marks said the ability to store frozen platelets would make blood transfusions more accessible in situations where liquid-stored platelets are not available.

“This study shows frozen platelets could be made available to rural or regional Australia, in smaller metropolitan hospitals, and in military hospitals,” Professor Marks said.

“These findings have been underpinned by a decade of research by Lifeblood to ensure delicate platelets can survive the freezing and thawing process.”

The study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Red Cross Lifeblood and the Australian Defence Force through its 2011 – 2022 relationship with UQ.

The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and presented at the Critical Care Reviews conference in Melbourne.