General Information Latest Topics

Hemocytometer QC

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 21:17:28 +0000

How often do you run Hemocytometer QC, is there a CLSI standard for this? We currently run every 8 hours but I would like to do every 24 - should this have an IQCP

Point of care hematology analzyer for oncology office

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 17:33:36 +0000

Does anyone have tips or warnings about using a Sysmex Pochi CBC with 3 part differential in an oncology office? We currently staff a medical technologist and have Beckman Coulter analyzer on site for 6 hours a day. We do maybe 10 cbcs a day. With the staffing shortage we are trying to think of a way to better use our staff yet still give the oncologists results they can use to treat patients

Any advice appreciated!

jonna

Automated Gram Stainer

Wed, 31 Aug 2022 20:23:20 +0000

Does anyone use an automated platform for making gram stains? If so, does it meet you expectations for quality of gram stain?

STAGO Compact Max

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 19:18:52 +0000

Hello!

Our labs our currently having issues with QC stability using the new 24 hour QC for the Compact Max analyzer. Has anyone else experienced this? The company is telling us to widen our range, but we don't feel comfortable doing this.

thank you,

Betsy

Sealing Crystal Slides

Thu, 27 Jul 2017 20:50:46 +0000

What do you use to seal a crystal slide? We use clear nail polish? Has anyone from an accrediting agency said anything or recommend anything.

stainer correlation

Tue, 30 May 2017 18:19:15 +0000

I always have 2 stainers in operation - Beckmans SMS, and then a benchtop backup. The question has come up regarding whether or not these need to be correlated on a 6 month basis. Because I live in NYS, and while there currently is no regulation stating we need to do cross-over studies or correlation when we switch lot numbers or manufacturers of toilet paper, I'm sure it's coming.

So - does anyone else out there with more than 1 stainer perform 6 month correlations between them? We are documenting stain quality on a daily basis.

malaria screening in remote mission lab

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 15:34:40 +0000

I have a colleague who is doing laboratory work as part of a medical mission in Central America.

The only hematology stain she has is a quick stain with three bottles; fixative, stain A (pink, presumably eosin) and Stain B (blue, presumably methylene blue)

She is asking about using the stain in malaria testing.

I know the CDC recommends Giemsa, and using Wrights only as a quick test for follow up with Giemsa. Neither is an option for her.

Does anyone on the listserve have any experience with detecting malaria on a quick stained blood smear?

Phlebotomy question

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 23:02:35 +0000

I hope a phlebotomy question to this forum is ok--please forgive if not.

I will be teaching phlebotomy in an MLS program soon, and I find that students often struggle with where to initially insert the needle--some start too low, many start right on top of the most prominent part of the vein and get a little blood spurt.

I wonder if it is possible to use a surgery marking pen to mark the site. Not being a surgeon, I don't really know whether surgeons make incisions right through the mark, and don't know if by the same token you could insert the phlebotomy needle through a marked site.

Thank you, generous forum members, for entertaining my question. I am afraid it's a stupid question, but don't know where else to turn for answers.

Cheers,

Kerry

Running CBC without WNR reagent?

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 20:36:29 +0000

On sysmex Xn 1000, we could get WBC count by the WDF channel. So could we run CBC without WNR reagent?

HemosIL D-Dimer HS 500 on ACL top

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 19:19:57 +0000

Hello everyone, I have a question as a med lab Hematology student.

Does anyone have experience using the HemosIL D-Dimer HS 500 latex enhanced immunoassay on the ACL top machine, where the manual pippeting of 1000ul patient sample is required?!

If so would you know what effect expelling the patient sample to the first stop on the pipette, therefore leaving a tiny amount of sample in the discarded pipette tip would have on the result?! Thank you!

Blue top shortage

Wed, 02 Jun 2021 17:42:19 +0000

Hi All, I am just wondering what you all are doing about the Blue Top Coag tube shortage. We have gone to fingerstick protimes but that doesn't cover all our coag testing.

CLSI GP34A

Thu, 13 May 2021 20:15:01 +0000

Does anyone have a copy of the CLSI GP34-A (Validation Verification of Blood Tubes)?

High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)

Wed, 26 Feb 2020 08:50:52 +0000

Hello every one,

In hemoglobin chromatography (HPLC), we sometimes get small, insignificant peaks. Like Hb-S peak of 8.0, Hb-C peak of 7.5 (RT 180 secs). The only things which we do are to either retest with same sample or ask for fresh sample. Point is, the hemograms and histories of such cases have not been helpful up till now. Is there anything else which could be done?

FDP kit validations

Thu, 15 Aug 2019 13:05:51 +0000

We are switching to a different manufacturer for FDP. I can't find validation material out there. We don't get hardly any FDP's and most of them are negative. Any suggestions?

KB TESTING

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 14:23:04 +0000

Does Sysmex have the capability to perform fetal cells count for KB?

Sysmex XN-20

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 01:27:28 +0000

Does anyone have an XN-20? The vendor makes a claim of 40% reduction in Blast/Abnlymph flagging when repeated on an XN-20. I see other papers have published a 12% reduction in review rates. Just wondering if anyone has taken the plunge to purchase one of these and what their experience has been.

Hemocytometer Controls

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 16:13:58 +0000

Hello all. Am I the only one that doesn't get hemocytometer controls. We run a liquid control when we do them, but it really seems that manual counts should be an issue of competency with a validated hemocytometer, not a qc issue. Even if you get a manufactured disposable hemocytometer with multiple counting areas you're only running qc on two areas that you don't even use for counting the patients. So it seems that QC is assessing the tech performance rather than the hemocytometer. Particularly if using an old glass one with the same coverslip over and over.

sysmex and specimens with cold antibodies and icteric interference

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 15:08:51 +0000

We have a patient with a very strong cold antibody who also has icteric interference. In order to resolve the high MCHC we have to do a warm saline replacement, this works splendidly.

My question is in regards to the retic. When we run the retic without doing a warm saline replacement vs with the warm saline replacement there is a significant difference in results.

Are we supposed to do the warm saline replacement to get a valid retic count or is it unnecessary?

Thank you very much

alinity HQ

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 21:08:50 +0000

Hi all

we are validating ALLINITY HQ machine

we almost pass all parameters except for reticulocyte count (both precision and accuracy). We repeated samples many times still not pass. we checked our QC of machine,, pass

Any further thoughts for next step ??

if anyone use HOPE system what was the total allowable error used ??

Automated CSF counts

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 08:17:43 +0000

Hi,

Hope you all are safe and healthy.

How do we report automated WBC count run on sysmex XN-3000?

Alinity Hq Cap Survey FH9-B

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 08:56:26 +0000

Is there any Alinity HQ users who have results evaluation report for CAP survey FH9-B who would be willing to share a copy of the report? we are evaluating Alinity HQ and want to Alinity group means.

Thanks

Beckman Coulter vs. Sysmex Cell Counters

Mon, 13 May 2019 15:21:03 +0000

We are in the market for new cell counters. We are currently using the Beckman Coulter DxH 800's . We have the SMS and the Cellavision. We haven't been using the slidemaker/ stainer as a stainer because of the maintenance (we use a small Aerospray with great results). Our choice is narrowed down to the DxH 900 and the Sysmex XN 3100. Can anyone offer any input? We are especially interested in maintenance on the Sysmex stainer, platelet accuracy, and overall support. We have also been told that the Sysmex analyzers vote out the MPV frequently. Thanks in advance for your input.

IRIS v. AUWi Pro

Thu, 23 May 2019 19:09:34 +0000

Hi Guys, We are looking at purchasing an IRIS iRICELL2000 from BeckmanCoulter or a CLINITEK AUWi PRO from Siemens. Any thoughts out there about which would be better for a smaller lab. We currently have an old IRIS that I do like but it does not do well with bacteria. For those who might have the AUWi how often do you need to go to the microscope?

Thanks for your help

malaria detection by automated analyser....?

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:12:07 +0000

what is the general experience with malaria detection by hematology analyzers? any advantages over microscopy or ICT?

Sysmex ColorWright Stain used manually

Tue, 12 Nov 2019 16:08:11 +0000

Hello,

Has anyone use the Sysmex ColorWright Stain for manual differential slide preparation off line. Currently we use the Diff-Quik system for our manual slide preparation and wondering if we can use the stain from the SP10?