Leaderboard

You can have tested and untested blood in the same refrigerator, but as you stated, they must be clearly marked as such. As for reagents, your big challenge having them in the same fridge is the temp requirements are different. Reagents are 2-8, not 1-6, so where do you set your alarm points etc. This is a very common AABB non-conformance.

We are using BioFire's FilmArray and their Gastrointestinal Panel. Pouch-based system which is blindingly good. 22 primary GI targets and looking for the gene expression for pathogenicity to avoid false positives particularly O157. Turnaround time of one hour. We love it. http://filmarray.com/assets/pdf/Info-Sheet-GI-Panel-MRKT-PRT-0234-07.pdf

We have done this once or twice before. We homogenise the donor samples in sterile 0.9% saline, then separate the solid food mass anaerobically (in CO2 - why kill the obligate anaerobes?) through an Endecotts 50 micron sieve shaker and centrifuge at 1800g for 8 mins. at 10C. Then hydrate and centrifuge again. We make up a storage medium of 50% sterile (0.9%) saline solution and 50% Glycerol (30%) solution. The storage medium is run through the autoclave at 128C and cooled. The centrifuged bacterial pellet is re-suspended in the glycerol storage medium (at 50/50) on the IKA shaker. We store at -80C in a dedicated ULT freezer. Our freezers keep 2,600 samples each and we have 3 freezers....... Yes, I am talking about a lot of sh*t........ (do you see what I did there?) We are incorporating storage under BS15189.

I find checking tubes under the scope still quite useful and will just continue with it until I retire. DATs, Fetal Screens (are SUPPOSED to be read under the scope) and weak reacting tube tests (especially when Capture is showing something and tube reactions are SO much weaker) are very useful, I find. We do not read rare reagents under the scope as that can lead to mis-interpretation of the test results. Rouleaus vs. agglutination is usually only detectable under a scope. Not to mention (but I will anyway!) my eyes are not as sharp as they used to be and the concave mirror just doesn't always do enough for me. Just like to see the reaction as MERRYPATH does. Sorry, Malcolm!

I'll say it again, we just need a quick, clear cut test that tells us who can make anti-D. I don't care what antigen they have or don't have! Well Mabel, if anyone ever comes up with that test, then they will make a fortune. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist - and I doubt if it ever will.....

Thanks for a remedy to a case of the Monday blues.

We have a surgeon or two (who have their patients donate their own blood or use the cell saver indiscriminately) who still seem to think the quality of our blood components is sh***y, so why gve them more reason to?

We are going to track the fecal transplants in Blood Bank just like we do for tissue, but we decided to store them in the ultra low freezer that is in Microbiology. I just couldn't bring myself to put it with my plasma or tissue.

Optical aid can be defined as an agglutination viewer with a magnifying mirror. It does not necessarily mean a micoscope is required.

I find it useful for distinguishing weak mixed field reactivity sometimes, as well as rouleaux.I don't endorse routine examination of negative AHG reactions.