U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research and Vitrafy are teaming up to evaluate an innovative method for preserving blood cells that control clotting.
Haemorrhage is by far the leading cause of preventable death in combat; by some estimates, blood loss is responsible for up to 90% of injury fatalities. Shrinking this number – especially in future large-scale combat operations (LSCO) – will require extensive forward deployment of whole blood and blood products such as plasma, platelets, and red blood cells. And effective forward deployment, in turn, depends on the ability to adequately preserve them for long-term storage.
Using Vitrafy’s cryopreservation technology, the phase 1 study showed that recovery rates of platelets was around 89%. These results suggest that cryopreserved platelets have the potential to be a game changer for Warfighters, especially in LSCO and resource constrained environments.
Read about the study and results here.
