Heat-treated Concentrates

Abstract

Commercial clotting factor concentrates for the replacement therapy of hemophiliacs are prepared from plasma pooled from large numbers of donors. These concentrates contain a variety of proteins with only a small amout of the desired component. One major consequence of this pooling procedure is the considerable chance of viral contamination, even where such viral prevalence in the checked donor population is extremely low. Attempts to inactivate viruses contained in plasma have extended to physical and chemical procedures. It is the purpose of this report to the various virus-inactivating procedures used in currently available concentrates, and to evaluate the eliminating process which may give an overloading stress on the immune system of patients with hemophilia.