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We're using myweigh Palmscale 7 – Advance 200 – was $48.90 ~ 1 year ago.

I got mine from Old Will Knott Scales. I bought the ProScale LCS100, and the 100gram calibration weight. All total I believe I paid $26.00 for all. www.oldwillknottscales.com

I found where I got the coupon. Give it a try you might just find something www.rightonscales.com/web/my-weigh/

We have been using a DURASCALE 100 from MY WEIGH. It is great. You should look on line for a coupon for MY WEIGH. I don't remember where I found it but it dropped the price to $42.00. It has a lifetime/30 year warrenty. Never had to calibrate as it stays the same. Have used it for 7 years.

We use a Durascale 100. It cost us less than $100 at the time. It came with 2 calibration weights. We have its calibration checked annually and after 6 years it's still dead on the mark.

From what I understand recipient notification is necessary if a donor has been repeatedly reactive or confirmed positive for HIV or HCV testing. Our policy also declares we make 3 attempts (via certified mail) to the recipient and the recipient's primary care physician of the exposure. I think there is a time of 8 or 10 weeks to accomplish this. We have a template letter to the MD and a different one for the recipient with check-off boxes of whether it was the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd attempt of notification for HIV/HCV positive testing on the donor. My questions: 1. If recipient is deceased, I read that we need to notify next of kin or legal representative. Is this true for both HIV and HCV?? 2. Does anyone notify the recipients physician for positive, confirmed testing for HBV or anything else that your supplier tests for? Just want to make sure we are doing it right.

Just tell them to keep those units moving at all times until they hang them. We issue our units in insulated lunch bags with small cold packs. Grab that bag by the handle and constantly swing it back and forth. Yup, that is just as ridiculous as the dual temperature requiement. Can anyone honestly say when they are receiving blood that the temperature does not exceed 6C? Unless you are in a cold room when you unpack, pull segments, and log the units in....

Quotient has reported a tendency for their anti-D blend to detect i on cord cells very weakly. They told me that it is not that the reagent is contaminated with anti-i but that the monoclonal that they use tends to cross-react with the i antigen on baby cells. We had one that looked like this at IS but was negative at AHG and they said to call it negative. Call their technical support and they will be very helpful.

It could of course be Wharton's Jelly

godchild, as long as the patient doesn't feel ill, it is not a delayed haemolytic transfusion reaction (whether we investigate it or not). It is, at worst, a delayed serological transfusion reaction.

I am going to be REALLY unpopular here, but I'm going to say it anyway (because I am a pedant)!!!!!!!!!!! Antigens CANNOT be either heterozygous or homozygous; only genes can be heterozygous or homozygous. An antigen can be described as either showing homozygous expression, or heterozygous expression. That having been said, is a red cell sample that types as K+k- phenotypically, genotypically K/K or K/Ko, or even K/k, with a mutation within the Kell gene that prevents the k antigen being expressed and detected with all anti-k grouping reagents (just in case anyone doesn't believe me - we had one!). That's got that off my chest. Now then, there is NO doubt that there are some anti-K's around that only react with K+k- red cells (dosage), but they are fairly rare, however, how many people use antibody screening red cells that are K+k-? I doubt if there are any. Therefore, we are all ruling out anti-K using red cells with apparent K antigen heterozygous expression on every single sample that (apparently) has no atypical alloantibodies present. Am I wrong about this? It follows, therefore, that, over the years, there MUST have been occasions when a patient with a very weak anti-K (one that is only detected using red cells that are apparently showing homozygous expression) and who has been transfused with K+ blood (do the maths). As far as I know, there are no papers within the literature that report a case of either a delayed or an acute transfusion reaction as a result of this. Yes, this may cause the anti-K to become stronger (and, hence, be detectable using an apparent heterozygous red cell sample showing K+k+ expression), but then, if this happens, you give K- blood. So, my considered answer is that you can exclude using K+k+ red cells. I shall now go and lie down!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To answer David's last question, in my experience, solid phase on the ECHO is more sensitive then PEG (which happens to be our backup method.) We have had ?? reactions on an antibody screening that were stronger on a capture panel, and ended up being a real, significant antibody. No matter what method you use, there will always be those patients whose specimens give a false positive. We just have to use our brains like we were taught oh so long ago. Beth