“…Of the three measures, this one varies the most widely; it is susceptible to errors in aseptic technique, and the observation cannot be confirmed by comparing bacterial strains isolated from the blood component and that of the patient. Most often, these studies have focused on bacterial contamination of random donor platelet concentrates, with positive cultures ranging from 0 to 10% (6,7,22,23,31,48,72,125,154) and apheresis platelets ranging from 0 to 5% (2,29,83,133). In over 75% of "contaminated" platelet concentrates, fewer than 10 organisms per ml were detected (6,22,31).…”