Abstract
In plasma collection from donors, a rotating cylindrical membrane plasmaseparator has attracted special interest recently because of its high efficiency in filtration flux. However, the device has a defect of reducing platelet aggregability due to Taylor vortex flow triggered by the rotation of inner cylinder. In order to establish a blood compatible donor plasmapheresis system, we developed ROMPS and evaluated its performance in in vitro. This device consists of a rotating cone of small angle (1°) and a Nuclepore polycarbonate membrane (0.8μm pore diameter). The rotation of the cone induces high shear rate on the blood without occurring turbulent flow and prevents the concentration polarization formed by blood cells. The observed maximum plasma filtration flux was 0.19ml/min-cm2 under the condition of an inlet blood flow rate of 50ml/min and shear rate of 6, 000s-1. The recoveries of F VIII and IX were greater than 95%, and complement activation was not detected. Further, there was no damage to the blood cells, especially the platelet aggregability almost kept constant. We conclude that ROMPS is highly efficient in flux and superior to the cylindrical membrane plasmaseparator in blood compatibility.
