galvania

Hello Shily. If you can write the German for me I can translate it into English for you - or you could scan the box insert and send it to me (a.galvani@diamed.ch). It might take a few days as I am in India at the moment and can't get access to my mails every day. I also can't see why jaundice or lipemia would interfere with the results. And for Mabel - you can't use liquid anti-A or anti-B in the gel method - the antisera are already incorporated in the gel

Dear Jim The world really is small. Isn't it amazing that we live in 2 different continents and we both know someone else in a third. Yes, I do know Madhu - very well, in fact. She is also a colleague and a very good friend. She will be accompanying me on part of the trip. You know, we work for the same company. I will definitely be in touch with you when I come back - towards the end of July. Meanwhile I'll let her know that we've been in contact. That will suprise her! I have to mail her tomorrow Anna

I'm going all over India for just over 2 weeks starting next Friday to do a training programme, really concentrating on antibody screening and identification. It will be a mixture of wet and dry; we should be be using their samples - hopefully we'll be able to solve a few of their 'real' cases. This has been organised by the Indian branch of the company I work for, which is a major manufacturer of blood grouping reagents in Switzerland (I don't think I'm allowed to mention the name - or am I?) So clearly this is a mixture of pure education and marketing. Is your trip purely educational?

I've been reading this thread with interest. In Europe the situation is generally that patients are tested with two different anti-D reagents. Both should be IgM and at least one of them must not react with DVI. On no account is a weak D test (Coombs) to be carried out. Patients who are positive with both anti-D reagents are considered as D+ and transfused with D+ blood, even if both reagents give weak positive results. Most labs work with gel, and this means that all but the weakest of weak Ds will react as positive. If one anti-D is pos and the other neg, then the patient is treated as a probable Partial D and treated as a D-. Donors are also tested with 2 anti-D reagents. At least 1 of these must react positively with DVI. Many centres continue to do a Coombs D on the negatives; others use an anti-CDE reagent as a surrogate marker for D antigens that are otherwise undetectable using routine techniques. I have a couple of specific questions. 1..To jhaig - is it possible that your patient was not in fact a weak D but had a positive DAT? You did not say whether you had put up an auto control at the time of testing and I don't know what the practise is in the States. In Europe anyone testing a Coombs D should alsop put up a control. 2..for aakupaku. I was very suprised to see that you have some cases of D antigens that are coming up positive by gel and negative by Coombs. I have been working for 16 years with gel technology and have never seen such a case - but then that's doing everything in gel and using monoclonal reagents. I can see that it is possible if using polyclonal reagents in the gel with enzymes in the cell diluent. 3..for engeekay 2003. You said that you found many examples of false positives in gel, especially with rouleaux. Again I find this puzzling unless you are using polyclonals with enzymes. In my experience, I have less problems with rouleaux in gel than I ever did in tubes. If you have time, details would be nice to satisfy my curiosity

Hi everyone. I came across this forum by accident, while I was looking for something blood-transfusion related on the internet. I just want to say what a good idea it is. I work for DiaMed in Switzerland and before that I worked for many years (too many!!) in various labs in the NHS in the UK, where I did all my training. It's really good to be able to see different problems from different countries' perspectives - with different regulations in place and different priorities. I shall be following the threads with great interest - and maybe I can even contribute from time to time!

I make a stable anti-A1 by absorbing an anti-A from an O donor with A2 cells. I then give the students A2 cells and my absorbed anti-A (which still has anti-A1 activity) in separate tubes As for making a weak D - I can't! Definitely no use mixing D+ and D- cella - you just get a definite double population if using gel