How to Optimize Donor Selection in a Cord Blood Bank

A cord blood bank stores umbilical cord blood, which is the blood that is in the baby's umbilical cord and placenta at birth. Umbilical cord blood (UCB) contains stem cells, which doctors use to fix life-threatening diseases like leukemia. Therefore, hospitals bank cord blood in the hopes that someday, a particular unit of blood will match a patient who needs a donation. Collecting and storing UCB is expensive, so there are several things that hospitals can do to optimize donor selection.

Instructions

• 1

  Screen incoming mothers in Labor and Delivery by gestational age. Studies on UCB and gestational age have found that babies born later have better cord blood. There is some disagreement about exactly how old a baby needs to be. A 2007 study published in the Central European Journal of Medicine suggests that a 32 to 40 week gestation will yield good UCB, while a 2006 study published in Transplantation Proceedings claims that you need a gestational age of at least 39 weeks. Scientists need to resolve this issue, but you can improve your bank efficiency by screening out babies who spent less than 32 weeks in the womb.

• 2

  Find the birth-weight of the baby before attempting a collection. Heavier babies usually have more UCB and more stem cells. Scientists have not established a weight-based collection threshold, but they suggest that a newborn weight of 3200 grams (about 7 pounds) can predict better cord blood collection.

• 3

  Weigh the placenta before collection and screen out donors with a placental weight of less than 600 grams. The two studies above found that a placental weight of 600 to 700 grams (1.3 to 1.5 pounds) tends to yield cord blood with more stem cells. Screening out these donors will prevent you from wasting time and space on units of blood that may not have enough stem cells to help a patient.

• 4

  Attempt a collection more often when the mother undergoes a Cesarean section. Mothers who deliver by C-section tend to produce babies with more stem cells in their UCB. While scientists do not know the reason for this, you may want to preferentially collect blood from C-section babies to increase your bank efficiency.

• 5

  Screen by sex, particularly if the other factors for a particular mother-child pair are borderline. A 2005 study published in Transfusion as well as the 2006 Transplantation Proceedings study both found that female infants tend to have more stem cells in their cords. Particularly if the placental weight or baby weight are on the low end for a male infant, it may be more efficient to not collect the cord.