Transfusion Services

Hello All! I know this subject has been discussed extensively. It continues to be a source of confusion in my TS, due mostly in part to the lack of solid Blood Bankers (all generalists who rotate through). Currently, our SOPs for working up suspected cold agglutinins include a "cold screen" at 4 degrees using Immucor Panoscreen I and II, and patient autocontrol. If Cold Screen is indicative of a cold Autoantibody, a Tube Pre-warm screen is performed, and subsequent panel, if warranted. This is so confusing to my techs. Last night I received a call at home from my 2nd shift tech, saying she had a patient coming in for transfusion for one unit of red c…

Has anyone automated the immediate spin and the IgG crossmatch using the Ortho Vision?

Hi, I need help. For years we sent blood to our OR in our blood supplier boxes to be stored there in case it was needed. The boxes would hold temperature 1-6 for at least 4 hours and were great. But now I have learned it is an infection control problem to use cardboard from outside the hospital. The box can be nowhere near the OR. So what kind of coolers do you use. I have been on line researching possible coolers. Any recommendations would be great. Thanks

I am implementing a new rule to check for PPID on the original ABO specimen so as to be able to use the same sample for the second typing. I aslo have other projects going and I was wondering if any one had any sample scripts I could use to work off of?

If you have not been able to acquire the new ortho workstation and still using the old workstation that is no longer registered or listed as a cleared medical device with the FDA what action are you taking if any?

If there is a regulatory requirement for this situation, please let me know How would your organization transfuse the following patient: TS performed on day 1. Patient is A- with a negative screen. Patient receives a massive transfusion in surgery. Due to inventory constraints, the patient received 12 A+ RBCs. TS on day 3. Patient is typing as A+ (No Mixed Field, just straight up A+), negative screen. If the floor ordered a unit of blood after the 2nd type and screen, what type of RBCs would your organization require you to transfuse?

We have a patient with hereditary spherocytosis who is pregnant with twins who are due in a few weeks. We have been notified that the babies could require exchange transfusions due to hyperbilirubinemia from the spherocytosis if they inherit it. Does anyone have any experience with such a case? Besides small volume or exchange transfusions of one or more babies, mom is starting with a chronic anemia so will be in more trouble if she bleeds much. It will be a busy time if everyone needs transfusion, but I wanted to see if there are any concerns I haven't thought of. Fortunately, no antibodies and mom is A pos.

Hi all, I'm still a relatively new blood banker and was wondering if you all would be willing to shed some light on the different methods of blood banking? We currently use solid phase but will be switching to gel next year. I have some questions regarding each method but also wanted to see what seasoned techs have experienced with them. Solid-phase: Incubation @ 37 with potentiator Wash AHG Read Pros: Sensitive Cons: Question: Won't pick up on clinically insignificant cold autos because of less exposure to cold temperature during the process? Or is it due to something else? Good to use with i…

Happy 2024! In our large tertiary care hospital, we require all requests for blood components/products to be faxed to the blood bank to ensure accuracy of information. However, we recently had an incident where the fax was not being received which delayed the issuing of the blood in an emergent situation. How many of you accept verbal orders for blood components/products? Would you accept verbal orders for emergency blood only? If so, do you have a specific form that is filled out at the time of the request?

Are there Proficiency Testing samples available for TEG 6s? I didn't find them on the CAP website but maybe I am not using the right search term.

There was a fantastic teaching website (indianinitiative.org) I used to use for my students that had case studies for all levels of blood banking covering a bunch of different aspects.. transfusion reaction, abo discrepancy, antibody workup, HDN. It has been down for me in the US with a cloudflare error - web server down for about 6 months now. This makes me very sad because I did not save all those case studies as pdf when I had the chance Has anyone here used that site or know if it has been relocated to another address? Google has no info

If a patient's Immediate Spin Crossmatch is weakly positive (tube method), and the Antibody Screen and IgG Crossmatch (GEL) are negative, what is the next step to prove Blood Type compatibility? Advancing to pre-warmed method seems a waste of time since the GEL Crossmatch is already negative.

Hi all, Below is what it says in the Instructions for Use (IFU) of MTS Anti-IgG Card. "The use of enzyme-treated red blood cells with the MTS™ Anti-IgG Card may detect clinically insignificant antibodies. The MTS™ Buffered Gel Card is recommended when using enzyme treated cells." I am confused If a buffered gel card is used, does that mean it is NOT an indirect antiglobulin test as I don't see where the AHG reagent is added. On the other hand, in the IFU of MTS Buffered Gel Card, it has the following statement. "This MTS™ Buffered Gel Card can be used in ABO Serum Grouping as well as direct agglutination i.e., cold and warm antibody detection." I…

We have a pregnant patient with anti-Lu b. Because of the variability of the antigen strength and the likely mild impact on the baby, is it recommended that we try to provide titers of this antibody?

We would like to discontinue performing KB stains in our laboratory and perform all fetal bleed determinations using flow cytometry. However, our flow lab is not 24/7. How do others address this issue of turn around time for results?

Any paper available that mentions low/high risk of DAT+ units in male patients? Thank you in advance

Can heart surgery patients coming off the pump be given cold stored platelets? They aren't hemorrhaging, which is the usual indication for these platelets, but I would think they could make use of activated platelets. If any references are available, I'd love to have them.

This question may be mainly for UK Blood Transfusion labs, but we have just had an ISO 15189 inspection and our inspector says we should be doing Uncertainty of Measurement (UoM) in Blood Transfusion labs, especially with regards to Blood grouping. Now, I have no idea how UoM relates to Blood Bank procedures, and my inspector failed to convince me, but he said that this is quite common in the UK now and many Transfusion labs are doing this. So for anyone working in a UK Blood Bank who are ISO 15189 accredited, are you doing UoM calculations for any BB procedure? If you are, can you please explain to me how it is relevant and what are you actually doing? UoM is relevant …

Good morning, friends! I wanted to see how many of you give Whole Blood to your Trauma and MTP patients. We are having discussions about it and wanted to see how many places actually use this product in these scenarios. Thank you as always! Sara

Need advice on how to proceed with this patient. 29 yr. old pregnant female, Anti-Jka ID'd. DAT: IgG neg, C' w+. Jka antigen typing 2+. No transfusion history. Could this be a possible Auto-Jka?

Has any of you validated the Grifols Gel card manually with Grifols screen cells and Ortho screen cells. and how did it go? Thanks

Hello, I am looking to purchase a cell washer to wash RBC units and Apheresis platelet units. I checked with Terumo and with Haemonetics and Terumo informed me that they are sunsetting the Cobe per the FDA due to issues with parts, so they will no longer sell it or support it in the US. Haemonetics ACP215 is not validated to wash AS-3 RBC units. We only have AS-3 in our blood bank. Can anyone provide a suggestion for a reliable and FDA approved cell washer that can wash AS-3 RBC units and platelets? Thank you, Nibal

Hello. Our institution wants to start stocking low titer group O whole blood. My questions are as follows: 1) What kind of compatibility testing is required. Can an electronic crossmatch be performed? SafeTrace TX will perform ELXM with an "O" to an "A" patient and call it incompatible, whereas when we did an immediate spin crossmatch, we determined it to be compatible. 2) What is your titer cutoff for these low titer whole bloods? Thank you!

For those that do not irradiate on site, do you keep an irradiated unit on hand or do you keep a regular cmv= fresh unit on hand? We get a new unit every 2 weeks and we rarely transfuse infants but we have a unit on hand just in case

Is anyone willing to share their procedure for preadmit specimens? We are planning on extending our retention from 8 to 28 days for crossmatches. At the present time we use Blood Bank armbands and serologically test. We have a request from a new provider to extend for 28 days and found that it is not as easy as it sounds! Some hospitals repeat the ABORH and the preadmit questions prior to surgery. All help with this topic would be greatly appreciated.