Figure 2

The percentage of patients with sepsis that developed ARDS after transfusion with red blood cells of varying storage duration. A total of 96 critically ill patients with sepsis were analyzed in a retrospective cohort study, all of whom received at least one transfusion of red blood cells. Patients who received red blood cells of a longer storage duration had an associated increased risk of subsequently developing ARDS. Gray bars represent the percentage of transfused patients with sepsis who developed ARDS after transfusion. Circles at the top and bottom represent individual patients with (top) and without (bottom) ARDS and the median age of transfused red blood cells received. The red line and 95% confidence band represent the probability of developing ARDS derived from a multivariable logistic regression model. The patients included in this study did not carry the diagnosis of transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI) as they already had a risk factor for ARDS (sepsis), and ARDS that occurred in this study was beyond the 6-hour window for the diagnosis of TRALI. Figure reproduced with permission from SpringerOpen, copyright 2013 [55].