Being ready-to-use, quality is further ensured as no reconstitution is required. In contrast, lyophilised material needs to be dissolved in a specific quantity of deionised water. Any inaccuracies in pipetting or calibration of pipettes can lead to errors, affecting the concentration of the reconstituted plasma. Consequently, this can lead to variation within batch and potentially affect assay performance over time. The frozen cryocheck range of Factor Deficient Plasmas provides consistent product every time – a fundamental requirement for good quality control.

Using frozen plasmas also brings valuable process improvements and time savings.  Prior to use, they just need to be removed from their -40 to -80C storage and thawed in a water bath at 37C for 4-5 minutes, depending on the vial size.  Lyophilised plasmas require much more time and operator handling. Stored at 2 to 8C they must be brought up to room temperature before use.  Typically, instructions for use suggest 15-20 minutes.  A further 15-20 minutes are required for the lyophilised material to become completely dissolved and ready for use.  Thus, the total time before testing can begin is at best 30 minutes and in the worst case, 40 minutes. 

Finally, frozen plasma has a long shelf life, typically 3 years from the date of manufacture, versus a shelf life of 2 years for lyophilised plasma.  The benefit of having longer shelf life means that standardising the test method with lot changes of reagents is reduced, thus lowering the set-up cost and reducing interruptions to work flow.    

* cryocheck Prekallikrein Deficient Plasma is prepared from a prekallikrein-deficient donor.

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