Blood bag temperature monitoring system.

ABSTRACT

Storage and transportation of red blood cells (RBCs) outside the standard temperature range as defined by guidelines can lead to hemolysis. One of the main factors believed to cause hemolysis is temperature.Infusion of the corrupted RBCs leads to haemolytic reactions which are severe and life-threatening. We developed a temperature monitoring system to monitor temperature changes of each blood bag during storage and transportation. The main objective of the present study was evaluating the accuracy of the temperature monitoring system and studying its feasibility. Validating the system relied on accurate digital thermometers that latch on a blood bag. To evaluate the feasibility, a case study was performed on 20 RBC bags transported from hospital blood bank to the cardiac surgery intensive care unit and the heart operating room. The results indicated that 12% of 25605 recorded temperatures (per minute) were outside the standard range. Minimum and maximum temperatures were 0.5 °C and 16 °C that were below and above the standard, respectively. The system was shown to be easily handled by users. The system is capable to alarm when a blood bag's temperature is outside the standard temperature and prevents blood corruption. This system can be used as a decision support system in blood transfusion services to improve storage and transportation conditions of the blood bags.