RBC with gross lipemia at collection cannot be manufactured into a unit for transfusion.
Lipemia is the presence of excessive amounts of lipid particles in the blood. Lipemia is not objectively measured. Because lipemic blood samples may interfere with donor testing for infectious diseases, its presence is subjectively identified although not measured. When the presence of lipemia interferes with testing, these units are discarded and are not distributed.
Lipemia in an RBC unit results from donor factors:
