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Some blood centres have increased sample volume of in-process cultures to improve detection of bacterial contamination when screening apheresis platelet units. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate extant published North American data comparing apheresis platelet bacterial contamination rates from 4 ml and 8 ml sample volume. Pooled results indicate an 8 ml sample volume yields higher true-positive rates than 4 ml resulting in a significant increase in the detection rate and interdiction of contaminated units, which should contribute to reduced risk of adverse transfusion outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]