Autologous red blood cell transfusions in clinics and their misuse in sports

Abstract

Blood or blood products may be transfused into one’s own veins (“autologous transfusion”) or someone else’s veins (“allogeneic” or “homologous”). More than 100 million units of blood are collected globally for this purpose each year (7). Initially transfusions were performed with whole blood, but nowadays specific blood compounds are administered in general. Packed red blood cells (RBCs, erythrocyte concentrates) are infused to treat life-threatening anemia, i.e. when the blood hemoglobin concentration [Hb] has fallen below 70 to 80 g/L in a patient (52). The transfusion of a single RBC unit (from ~525 mL blood) increases [Hb] by about 10 g/L (45). In endurance sports, the mass of Hb (Hbmass) correlates with the rate of maximal O2 uptake (O2max). The transfusion of RBCs enhances O2max and Wolfgang Jelkmann, M.D. Professor of Physiology (ret.) University of Luebeck 23562 Luebeck, Germany : wolfgang.jelkmann@uni-luebeck.de SCHLÜSSELWÖRTER: Anämie, Biologischer Pass, Hämoglobin, Doping, Kryokonservierung