EV0260 ePoster Viewing Abdominal/gastrointestinal, urinary tract & genital

Surveillance study of infectious in umbilical cord and maternal samples in a public cord blood bank

Aggeliki Xagorari1, Antonia Syrigou1, Zoi Bousiou1, Panagiota Karavassilidou2, Marina Keramari2, Maria Ganidou3, Achilles Anagnostopoulos1, Damianos Sotiropoulos*1

1G. Papanicolaou Hospital, Public Cord Blood Bank, Dept. of - Bmt Unit, Thessaloniki, Greece

2G.Papanicolaou Hospital, Public Cord Blood Bank, Dept. of Hematology - Bmt Unit, Thessaloniki, Greece

3G. Papanicolaou Hospital, Transfusion Department, Thessaloniki, Greece

Background: Umbilical cord blood (UCB) represents a powerful alternative stem cell source for transplantation. UCB offers advantages over bone marrow or mobilized peripheral blood including ready availability, ethnic diversity in the world-wide UCB banks. Cord blood is newborn’s blood that remain in the uterus and the umbilical cord after delivery. Pathogens (excluding cross-contamination) or related antibodies detected in UCB reflect transmission from the mother. The Public Cord Blood Bank has been established in 2009 and accepts cord blood units (CBUs) for allogeneic transplantation. It is part of the Hematology center including the Hematology clinic and the Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit. Cord Blood Bank is a member of Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide, the Hellenic Transplant Organization and the Netcord Foundation (associate).

Material/methods: Cord blood was collected in Maternity Clinics of Northern Greece. Maternal blood samples were collected at the time of delivery. Plasma samples were collected from cord blood after processing in the fully automated system SEPAX (Biosafe). Tests for Hepatitis B Virus (HBV, HBsAg), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV, anti-HCV), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV, anti-HIV 1-2), Human T Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 and 2 (HTLV 1/2, anti-HTLV I/II ) RPR for syphilis and Cytomegalovirus (CMV, CMV-G and CMV-M) were performed in the Infectious Department of the Transfusion Department of the G.Papanicolaou Hospital. Serological tests were performed using the CEMIA method. 2873 women from Northern Greece, 23-42 years old were tested during delivery. Equal number of cord blood units representing related newborns were tested.

Results: In 2873 maternal samples the positive rate of CMV-G was 70.8% while the negative was 29.2 %. In UCBs CMV-G positivity was detected in 68.9% and negativity in 31.1 %. These data reflect placenta crossing of CMV IgG antibodies in a 97.3% ratio. From 8 CMV-M positive mothers (0.39%) only 2 cord blood samples were positive. In maternal samples were detected 4 HCV positive samples whereas in UCB 1 sample was detected positive and 2 samples in borderline. Additionally among maternal samples were 3 HBV positive and no positive in UCBs. From 3 positive for RPR maternal samples there was 1 was borderline in UCB.

Conclusions: CMV seroprevalence in pregnant women was high. Women with recent CMV (CMV-M positive) during delivery phase are very rare. The number of maternal HBV and HCV positive samples is very low because pregnant women in Greece are tested at the beginning of pregnancy and those that are positive do not donate cord blood.