LAUSR

were consistently culture positive after 5 days of room temperature storage. For whole blood inoculated units and for all experimental repeats, three of nine tested organisms, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Escherichia coli, and Enterobacter cloacae, remained culture negative after 5 days of room temperature storage. Whole blood contaminated with any of the remaining six organisms showed evidence of bacterial contamination in cryoprecipitate after 5-day room temperature storage for at least some experimental repeats. The time of first detection for most of the bacterial species was only several hours, suggesting some degree of bacterial proliferation in the cryoprecipitate during room temperature storage. These results strongly suggest that there is a risk of bacterial contamination and proliferation potential in cryoprecipitate stored at room temperature for an extended period. Use of pathogen-reduced cryoprecipitate or bacterial-tested cryoprecipitate may mitigate this risk. Alternatively, the risk of bacterial proliferation may be minimized by storing thawed cryoprecipitate at refrigerated temperatures with resuspension of resulting aggregates by incubation at 37 C for 5 minutes combined with vigorous mixing, as suggested by Fenderson and colleagues.