CMV donor status

[DFields]

Do your computer systems check current CMV (antibody) test results vs. prior (for platelet apheresis donors especially)? If not, do you check manually as far as keep a file on each donor?

Have you ever had discrepant test results, such as back and forth NEG,NEG,POS, NEG,NEG,NEG,POS, etc.??

If you had a POS result and then the donor tested NEG for multiple donations after that, would you label the products CMV NEG or not (as precaution due to prior POS result)??

[L106]

Again, let's hear from some donor centers who have dealt with this situation.

[DWA09]

I had a little experience with this. I donated platelets for several years with my local blood bank and was CMV neg. About 2 years ago I was watching the screen while being registered and saw it said CMV pos with a recent date from being updated.

Almost a year ago our center was acquired by a different organization so we had to start from scratch with our testing. At my second donation with the new company I saw the CMV result from my first donation and was again negative. I've donated several times so far with the new company and have stayed negative. Could I have gotten a false positive?

[Cliff]

Welcome to PathLabTalk DWA09.

CMV isn't a required test for platelet donations, and it is one of the more "finicky" tests. It is possible that there was a false positive.

Many donors are CMV positive - there is no health concern for you. It is only a concern for immunosuppressed patients who receive your products.

Most (almost all) people start life out CMV negative. As we age it's likely we will be exposed to CMV at some point in our life and convert to CMV positive. Depending on the test the lab did (there are several and all have different sensitivity levels), a subsequent test may have been CMV negative if it wasn't sensitive enough to detect the virus.

You might want to point out to the new company that you were CMV positive in the past, but are not sure if it was a false positive. Many facilities will not test you again once you have tested CMV positive, others will test you every time.

CMV is generally believed to be found in the white blood cells of products, and platelets have almost no white blood cell. Some facilities will transfuse a product that is leukopoor (few white blood cells) as being equivalent to CMV negative, and others will only transfuse products tested to be CMV negative - this is only for patients who require CMV negative products.

Platelets are a very precious commodity and they will not be wasted even if they are CMV positive, so there is no risk to you as a donor if you let the center know you may have tested positive in the past.

Most important, thank you for being a blood donor!

I hope this helps.

[DWA09]

Thanks Cliff, I forgot to mention in the other post I also work at the center as a phlebotomist and apheresis tech usually on mobile drives. I did mention this to our in center supervisor and she seemed to come to the same conclusion about a false positive. I just wanted to get a little more feedback in case someone had a different theory.

[L106]

Very nice explanation, Cliff. Thanks!

Donna