General Information

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.

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

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

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?

We have a Pathologist who is off site, and she has asked that techs take photos of abnormal hematology cells with their cell phone and text them to her if they have any questions. We are very uncomfortable with this for the following reasons: 1. We have a no cell phone policy in the lab due to tech distraction and universal precautions (everything in the lab is considered dirty and handled with gloves 2. The hospital does not pay for our person cell phones. Has anyone ever heard of this request? Apparently she also does not like to have to review a slide and locate the cell in question, she wants it shown to her. I say she is getting paid for …

Hi, Hope you are fine. My problem is: Which other hemoglobins elute in same window (same retention times) as Hemoglobin S in ARKRAY ADAMS A1c HA-8180T Analyzer? (P.S. it gives retention times in seconds.) Regards

Does anyone still grade morphology when reporting out a smear review for a CBC? We stopped years ago, the idea being that a particular morphology is either significantly apparent or it is not--so we report only if present in significant amounts on the scope. Likewise we do not report redundant morphologies that can be inferred from automatic CBC results, such as hypochromia, microcytosis, anisocytosis, etc.

Does anyone have a delta check policy they would be willing to share? Or something that guides techs as to the proper steps to take to verify the results?

I have two laboratories that each has a Sedimat 15 for performing automated erythrocyte sedimentation rates. Does anyone know what the target percentage should be for correlation studies between the two analyzers?

Hello! My lab currently uses the Beckman Coulter DXH 800 analyzers. I was wondering what other labs' procedures are for RBC interference caused by hyperleukocytosis. One of the labs in my region is following an old procedure that has them spin the specimen, remove the buffy coat, and run the resuspended RBCs through the analyzer. Has anyone else heard of doing this? Thanks!

We are looking to validate body fluids on our Coulter DxH 600. We don't get that many fluids - maybe 2 or 3 a week if we're lucky. I'm having trouble finding a product for validation studies. It seems as though we don't correlate very well manually :(. That is a huge reason for wanting to change to automated. What do you use?

I am looking for information on a procedure for performing bronchial lavage differentials.

Does anyone out there still do bleeding times? If your facility doesn't, did you just discontinue it altogether or did you switch to another testing method?

Has anyone ever seen or used a HemaPro Slide stainer??

We have 3 TEG 3000s in the blood bank. Our Core lab has just brought in 4 Rotems and we would desperately love to get the TEGs out of the blood banks. The problem is that the Rotems do not run platelet mappings and the TEG does. We were told that running the Rotem with the drug/aspirin cartridge on Verify Now would provide comparable result as the platelet mapping. Our Medical Director said the Rotems/Verify Now result does not provide results for platelet inhibition which he thinks is needed. Are there any location that use the Rotems/Verify Now for their patient and what is done for platelet inhibition? Any assistance is very appreciated.

Hello, Hematologists! I am a blood banker who is trying to understand the flow cytometry to estimate the proportion of chimerism in hematopoietic transplant patients. In the report different CD markers for erythroid precusor cells were mentioned. As I understood, some CD markers were specific for red cell line and some were not specific. Is there any chart or tables of CD markers found in erythroid precusor cells that I can study from. Or any references that I can read up on it?

For those of you out there running TEG 6s instruments, since Haemonetics does not have 2 levels of commercial QC available how do you satisfy this requirement: HEM.20090 Alternative Control Procedures Phase II If the laboratory performs test procedures for which control materials are not commercially available, there are written procedures for an alternative mechanism to detect immediate errors and monitor test system performance over time. The performance of alternative control procedures must be recorded. NOTE: "Performance" includes elements of accuracy, precision, and clinical discriminating power. Examples of alternative procedures may include split …

Hi, does anyone use the iSED sed rate analyzer? I am interested in pros and cons, ease of use, reliability etc. thanks

We currently use a procedural control for our manual cell counts. We are currently CAP certified, but are switching to Joint Commission. One of their Standards states that for manual cell counts, one level of QC for every 8 hours of testing is performed and documented. Does anyone accredited by Joint commission use procedural controls?

Streck is discontinuing the ESR plus sed-rate analyzer and I was wondering what everyone else is using. streck is recommending the mini-cube but I don't know any thing about the analyzer good or bad as I think it pretty new but is able to test directly from the edta tube eliminating the need for sed-rate tubes. we only do 10-15 per month so we do not need an analyzer that can test dozens of sed-rates at a time but something affordable and reliable. Thanks

Just gathering inputs on what to do when you have MCHC >37 after dilution and prewarming of the slightly lipemic sample. Thank you.

Has anyone else ever noted these? These crystals appear with Wright-Giemsa stain as greenish aggregates in neutrophils. They are often associated with severe necotizing liver disease. Here is one reference but there are others on the net: https://www.ascls.org/communication/ascls-today/320-ascls-today-volume-32-number-4/431-a-case-of-blue-green-neutrophil-inclusions In the articles I've looked at, they may only appear in 1-2% of cases, so they are easy to miss. There are a few good images on the internet if you look for them. I was wondering if anyone else who is aware of these things, routinely reports them if they are noted. Thanks, Scott

This is a new one for me (after 30 years!) An ER patient presented recently with a MCV of 107 and low MCH, MCHC. This patient was in house at our hospital just last week, with all normal indices. Called the RN in ER who commented that she is expected to have a very high glucose. Googled it and sure enough, hit a few articles like this; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7259094 The patient had a glucose over 1400 g/dl. My question is this: for those of you who are aware of this phenomenon, do you attempt a correction and report that out? Apparently this is a in vitro pj=henomenon related to hyperosmolality when the blood sits in the EDTA tube before pr…

Dear fellow haem/coag scientists, Do you guys send citrate adjusted tubes for babies with HCT>0.55 and if so what does your SOP say? anyone from Childrens Hospitals?

Does anyone have a XN-550 hematology analyzer? I'm writing procedures and was wondering if anyone wanted to share with me. Thanks, Dawn Arnett-Wingham, MT