RichU

UK units are all K typed. We don't give K+ blood to females <50years, children, anti-CD38 patients, chronically transfused (eg Sickle) or anyone with anti-K. Anyone else is fair game.

Thanks srichar3. I know about 5.3, hence our 45 minute stipulation, but there is no max?

The BioRad panel sheets only usually give + or 0 for P1 whereas NHSBT give numeric scores which is much more helpful when the antibody only reacts by IAT with strong examples. A cold panel helps with any ambiguity too. (and P1 type on the patient, but who stocks anti-P1 at a hospital?)

Hi all, Can I have your opinions/policies regarding the following please? We currently have 15 members of the on call rota, 12 of these are not transfusion staff. Therefore we only get 2 sessions a month and sometimes wont be performing any serology for weeks. Everyone does have to do 10 days in here per annum. More people want to join the rota and the pathology manager thinks this is a great idea. I am concerned that, especially the ones new to transfusion, won't be particularly competent with that level of experience. Thanks, Rich

We use BioRad gelcards. There are different ABD-Confirmation cards for Donors and Patients. The Donor one detects DVI, the patient one does not. The D status of all donors found negative by the ABD conf card are confirmed using a monoclonal anti-D by IAT. Is re-grouping of units, sent from the blood bank, at the hospital a thing? Sorry for the late post

What are the post delivery time constraints for a sample to screen for FMH? We require maternal sample taken at least 45 minutes post delivery, but is there a maximum limit and where are the regulations for this? I can't see anything in the BSH guidelines (for UK bods) We had a delivery sample which we had to reject (minimum data set not met), so we issued 500IU anti-D and requested a repeat sample which did not get taken until the day after. Would foetal cells (with prophylactic anti-D, already sensitising them) be being removed from circulation, would this affect the dosa

Thanks Malcolm, I was hoping you would reply. I didn't fall asleep but had to reread a few times! I left their employ 4 years ago. I don't recall selecting M- units if the anti-M was not detected by IAT. I did wonder if the policy had changed since I left, but from what you say it was already in place. The unfortunate thing for us is that we produce our own red cells, which are compatible and (probably) safe for these patients, but we have to import M- units from the UK due to the RCI report. This means we have to pay for the units and the cost of air freight for blood which we

We have an antenatal patient with previously detected anti-M. We referred the booking sample to our RCI lab who did not titre the anti-M as it did not react by IAT. The report we got back recommended we select M- units for cross-matching by IAT. This is contrary to the British Society for Haematology guidelines which say M- must be selected only if detected at 37oC. When I queried the advice I was told this is their policy. Any thoughts?

Wow. I didn't realise how lucky we are at my hospital. We process around 7,000 samples a year, so not a large facility. It is not a lack of expertise that stops us doing elutions/titres/adsorptions rather that it would not make financial sense for us to. We have 4 full-time transfusion specialists for routine (9-5) hours. Outside of these times is covered by multidisciplinary on-call. Any biomedical scientist in the pathology department can join the rota. On call samples are processed in haematology, transfusion, biochemistry and a few micro tests by the lone worker. Traini

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We have a system called bloodtrack. Basically crossmatched units for named patients and 2 O neg units for emergency use (labelled with dire warning about uncrossmatched red cells) are kept in a locked fridge. To access this fridge the user who comes to collect units has to scan their barcode then the barcode on the blood pack(s). Bloodtrack saves the information regarding personnel, unit details and time removed from temp. controlled storage. There is an audit form with the emergency units which the medic has to fill in and return to the lab. so that we know which patient has received whi

All paediatric units produced by NHSBT in the UK are HbS negative.

Sorry for the delayed reply mrmic. We received 3 requests for bilirubin level but 2 were insufficient. The first was within normal limits. We have had no follow up samples from baby and I do not expect one. I assume, due to our lack of knowledge regarding an ongoing situation, that the baby did not require any medical intervention. Thanks

Thanks for still cogitating on this. How strong would an antibody have to be to block antigen sites? ( Difficult to answer given the lack of cases, I assume) Also, given the presumed whoppingness(!) of the titre, wouldn't you expect at least some sign of HDFN? Cheers p.s. I have had to postpone the presentation due to circumstances beyond even World leaders.

There's always a caveat with serology! Sometimes when things are so ingrained it's easy to take them as read.