Role of quality control for improvement of blood components in the Regional Blood Centre of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, 2014

Objectives. - In Burkina Faso, blood components must comply with national standards. Then, all Transfusion services must implement a quality control process to ensure compliance. Our study aims to establish the main characteristics of blood components of the regional transfusion center of Ouagadougou, and evaluate the capability of this center to improve its manufacturing process. Methods. - We conducted from marsh to December 2014 a pre-post study, assessing blood components' characteristics before and after the implementation of a six months' improvement plan. The assessed parameters were: volume, hematocrit (Ht) and hemoglobin (Hb) levels in RBCs; volume and the number of platelets in PPCs; and volume and concentration of clotting factor VDT in fresh frozen plasma (FFP), respectively. Three hundred and twelve RBCs and 280 PCs were randomly selected for the first series of controls, and 215 RBCs, 54 PCs and 60 FFP were selected for the second series of controls. We compared the mean values of the components parameters and the overall non-compliance rates for each series. Results. - The average Hb level of RBCs was respectively 47.8 +/- 8.9 g and 54.7 +/- 7.2 gin the first and second series compare to a standard of >= 40 g. Non-compliance rates of Hb level decreased significantly from 17.6% to 1.4%. For PCs units, the mean number of platelets was 0.14 +/- 0.10 x 10(11) and 0.30 +/- 0.15 x 10(11) in the first and second period compare to a standard of 0.5 x 10(11). Non-compliance rates for platelets number were high 97.1% and 72.2%. Conclusion. - The study demonstrates that only RBCs complied with national standards. The study also demonstrates the capability of CRTSO to improve blood components' processing even if for PCs and FFP, NC rates remain high. QC must be maintained and expanded to the others regional blood centers of the country. (C) 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.