The Effect of Different Harvest Strategies on the Nucleated Cell Yields of Bone Marrow Collection

To improve bone marrow (BM) harvest of the volunteer donors in our institute, we changed from the single-hole needle to the multi–side-hole needle after March 2002, and examined the midway total nucleated cell (TNC) counts during collection after September 2004. The aims of this retrospective study were to evaluate BM harvest yields obtained through different strategies and to examine the correlation between final and midway BM harvests. The distribution of BM harvesting by different strategies was 235 donors with single-hole needles (group A), 389 donors with 5–side-hole needles (group B), and 365 donors with 5–side-hole needles and midway TNC counts (group C). The nucleated cell density of the collected BM was significantly improved by modifying the harvest strategy (0.202 × 108/mL in group A, 0.219 × 108/mL in group B, and 0.250 × 108/mL in group C; P < .001). The percentage of unacceptable TNC dose (<2 × 108/kg) was also decreased in all 3 groups (to 5.9%, 3.6%, and 0%, respectively; P < .001). Multiple regression analysis revealed that donor weight, white blood cell count, and harvest strategy were positively correlated with BM TNC density (P < .001), whereas harvested BM volume was negatively correlated with TNC density (P < .001). On linear regression analysis, highly significant correlations were noted between midway and final TNC densities (r = 0.8774; P < .001) as well as between harvested BM volume and TNC count (r = 0.7937; P < .001). Changing the harvesting needle and checking the midway TNC count improved the harvest outcome.