Background and objectives: Irradiation of whole blood and blood components before transfusion is currently the only accepted methodology to prevent transfusion-associated graft-vs.-host disease. In the present work, we developed an automated system for blood bag storage during irradiation, using a teletherapy unit.
Materials and methods: A device with two thermal compartments was constructed in acrylic and foam, for the storage of blood bags during irradiation. An automatic acquisition system, coupled with an amplifier and a thermal-sensitive probe, were developed to check blood temperature during irradiation. A polystyrene phantom was constructed to simulate the volume of blood routinely irradiated. The dose distribution was measured in the phantom using thermoluminescent dosimeters and represented in terms of isodose curves.
Results: The thermal device kept the blood temperature below 6 degrees C for more than 2 h. Our system allowed the simultaneous irradiation of two different blood components while maintaining a constant temperature. The temperature monitoring system remained invariant (0.2 degrees C) over the whole irradiation interval. Phantom dosimetric results showed a homogeneous dose distribution when the phantom was irradiated, using rotational fields with a 2 r.p.m. frequency.
Conclusions: The methodology developed in the present work provides appropriate storage conditions during irradiation of both red blood cells and platelet blood components using a teletherapy unit.