Tissue, stem cells, and bone marrow

Hello All, I am interested in some end-user experiences with UDITracker by InVita. We are looking at possibly implementing this software in the near future. Our LIS Analyst is also wondering how exactly their unidirectional interface works. Any input at all would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! Steph

How often is it recommended to flush the Hep-lock of a central line to keep it patent in between stem cell harvests? Thanks Liz

How do diseases correlate with the abilityof the patient to mobilize his/her stem cells? Does anyone have a reference to this please? Thank you Liz

Hi all, I am new to this list. Please forgive me if this post is redundant. I looked in the "reviews" section and I did not see much in the way of cellular therapy computer software. Would any of you be willing to share your thoughts on the following products - Stem Lab, EMMES, EdgeCell, or Core Informatics? We are a stand alone facility without an LIS so no Meidware or Meditech, etc. Likes or dislikes? Interfaces with lab instruments and outside testing vendors? Reports? Paperless system? ISBT friendly? Tracking? Supply Inventory? Flexibility and adaptability? Are there other products I am missing? I feel the system must include donor history and follow up, product hist…

Would anyone be willing to share procedures regarding preparation and testing stem cells for administration to include receipt, thawing, aliquoting, and testing of both a donor sample and the patient prior to administration?

It's hard to find clear direction, but I think that our OR should be labeling our autologous skull flaps as "For Autologous Use Only" and "Not tested for infectious diseases" (or some similar wording). Have any of you been able to get your surgery staff to apply such labels? Do you have labels for this that stay stuck at -70C? If anyone has an easy way to do this (special bags, labels etc.) I'd love to know about it.

Our whole stem cell lab is moving next year to a new space (not a better space, mind you, just new to us!). We have 4 tanks full of stem cells. Any advice or suggestions on how to safely move full tanks with liquid nitrogen? I have a feeling most moving companies would balk at moving "dangerous chemicals". We can't be the only ones who've moved!

Our clinical program does an informed consent of the HPC donor prior to them coming to collections. We also do a watered down consent with the donor on the day of collection. We are not AABB accredited for stem cell collections / processing - only FACT, TJC and FDA. If part of our process is to ensure we have a copy of the informed consent for collection on file (from days or weeks prior), do we need to consent the donor on the day of donation? I can't find a rule that says we do.

Has anyone had experience of testing patients being treated with anti-CD38?

Does anyone who has a Tissue Bank in the OR do the Quality Coordination for them? Or do some of you have Quality Coordinators who reside in the OR department rather than the lab?

Can anyone direct me to another user of the Tissue Implant Module or Supply Stations marketed by Carefusion/Pyxis? I would like to get some frontline user information as we prepare to build our new system. If you are willing to be contacted I can private message you. Thanks.

Our transplant center called and they have a new required change where Type "B" recipients must have and Anti-A IGG titer performed before the recipient can get an A2 or A2B donor's kidney. They sent me a copy of a procedure that they had gotten from another facility. That procedure treats the serum with DTT but then the rest of the procedure is on their automated analyzer. We currently do not a procedure for titers that treat the serum with DTT and then goes to 37C we only do RT isohemagglutinin titers. Does anyone have a Anti-A IGG procedure with treatment with DTT that they would be willing to share or any other recommends for us to help them meet this change?

I'm working with our surgical service on a policy to improve bone/tissue/biological handling and oversight. We aren't a large facility, but have a surprisingly large number of types of bone/tissue/biological materials available for use. After going through the latest JC checklist, surgery realized that there was a big need for improvement in policies they had in place. We are going to place everything bone/tissue/biologicals related under the oversight of the blood bank medical director. As part of this process, we are writing several policies that will be used by both blood bank (frozen bone/tendons) and surgery (everything else) - to make sure that we are all following …

We are expanding services at our hospital to include neurosurgery. So the surgery department will be wanting to store the bone flaps from the decompression surgeries. I am trying to find some reference materials or a kind person that may be willing to share their process. Thank you!!

I need a list of tissue tracking software vendors so we can start the discovery phase of implementing some. Please share any software vendor you use or know about and any information about how well they work. We were going to go with the McKesson product but since they are sunsetting their current Clinical/EMR system that it was integrated with and it doesn't integrate with their new EMR version, Paragon, we need to go back to look at all vendors.

Hi all, The apheresis (stem cell collection only) part of the Transfusion Service is splitting off and will now become a separate hospital department. In the past, CAP would inspect the apheresis department with the rest of the Transfusion Service as well as FACT. After splitting off, what is the minimum that will be required for certification or accreditation. FACT will continue to inspect.

Looks like my Blood Bank will now be taking on tissues. Ugh. Is anyone currently using SoftBank for tissues (inventory, issuing, etc)? And if so, what is your experience?

Hi, I was wondering if anyone that works in a cellular therapy laboratory does any follow-up work up on the recipient to an adverse reaction to a HPC product? We currently do not do any adverse reaction work-ups nor does the transfusion service for stem cell products. Just curious if anyone else does. Thanks for your help!

Hey everybody, I am trying to gather some data to see what process volume facilities use during and HPC,Apheresis collection. I have read everything from 12L-20L or 200 mL per kilogram. We are looking at a new volume due to the new machine they would like to start collecting our products on. We are looking at using an Optia. Any input would be great!

Does anyone have a procedure for using Hetastarch to reduce the volume of red cells in bone marrow collections intended for transplant?

Hello All, We are starting to look at new database software for our HPC Lab to replace our current Microsoft Access database. I went to the CTTXPO in oct and have to say mediware's transtem and stemsoft's stemlab look the closest to filling our needs. Does anyone have experience using either of these from the stem cell lab side? Pros/cons about your system? Other suggestions? We want something that stores the data locally, not web/cloud based. We are a moderate sized processing lab handling maybe 200 products/yr, mainly apheresis HPC, occasional marrow/cords. Feel free to respond in private message if you want to give feedback in a nonpublic forum Thanks! -C

pls tell me how to join the Asian Cord Blood Bank Consortium?

We are becoming involved in tissue management, having moved implantable tissue (bone, tendon, etc) into the lab, and finding that the OR / surgeon expects to be able to put frozen products back in the -80 freezer, perhaps with a shorter (6 month) outdate. Surgeons like to see several products and choose one. We had assumed, once out of the freezer, these are wasted, or at best, in the fridge with a 24 hour outdate. Thoughts on this? Should we: a) just waste the tissue, try to validate some coolers for frozen tissue, c) look into thermometers to place in coolers? Currently, we have ice blocks, but no source of dry ice. A couple issues that have been brought up - a m…

We have a potential transplant scheduled this month using a marrow collected from a donor with Sickle Trait. Unfortunately, the donor and recipient are ABO Incompatible and the marrow will require red cell depletion. Does anyone have experience using ficoll to deplete sickle trait red cells from bone marrow? Please share as I have concerns about the nucleated cell recovery during this process and am trying to convince transplant team to pick a different donor.

We store autologous bone flaps at our hospital in blood bank in a -70 tissue freezer. Yesterday an auto bone flap was sent to surgery to be reimplanted. After the surgeon implanted the bone flap, the patient began having active intractible seizures. The surgeon removed the bone flap and it was returned to the blood bank. The bone flap was placed back into the -70 tissue freezer. The bone flap was cultured per our hospital procedure both when initially collected and after being removed this time. We have never had an auto bone flap that has been thawed returned to be refrozen. We would appreciate anyones thoughts on this situation.