Letter A

Apheresis

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The process of removing a specific component from blood and returning the remaining components to the donor, in order to collect more of one particular part of the blood than could be separated from a unit of whole blood.

Also called hemapheresis or pheresis.

The forms of apheresis include: > >Plasmapheresis -- to harvest plasma (the liquid part of the blood) >Leukapheresis -- to harvest leukocytes (white blood cells) >Granulocytapheresis -- to harvest granulocytes (neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophil) >Lymphocytapheresis -- to harvest lymphocytes >Lymphoplasmapheresis - to harvest lymphocytes and plasma >Plateletpheresis (thrombocytapheresis) - to harvest platelets (thrombocytes) </LI></UL> Apheresis takes longer than a whole blood donation.

A whole blood donation takes about 10-20 minutes to collect the blood, while an apheresis donation may take about 1-2 hours.

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