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heathervaught

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Everything posted by heathervaught

  1. heathervaught
    Did you try changing your check cells, or trying a different lot? I've noticed that sometimes 2 drops of check cells are needed.
  2. heathervaught
    If the devices are possibly exposed to conditions during shipping that may impact the functionality of the device, then I think it would be wise to perform some sort of qualification at least per shipment. That's how we manage our BacT/ALERT bottles -- we select a few bottles from each shipment and determine that they work before we release the shipment for use.
  3. heathervaught
    Procedures for determining if someone is a candidate for irradiated and CMV negative blood should NOT just say "bone marrow transplant". Due to the diverse sources of hematopoietic progenitor cells these days, (bone marrow, peripheral blood, cord blood, and ones that are currently being devleloped), it is wise to use terms such as "HPC" instead of "Bone marrow".
  4. heathervaught
    While I can't answer who requires it or why it is required, we perform these steps: When a new lot number is received, record the date received on each box and place the boxes into a Quarantine area until QC has been performed on the lot. When you open a new box of RAD-SURE® labels, record the date opened and your initials on the box. Verify that the Temperature History Card color is blue/black. If an orange colour is on the card, the box of RAD-SURE® labels should not be used. Contact a supervisor immediately for instructions on how to proceed. Place a RAD-SURE® label from the new lot number on an expired blood product (red cell or platelet) and irradiate the unit. QC is acceptable if the window of the RAD-SURE® label turns black and the word “NOT†is no longer visible. Looking at the references for our SOP, these steps are probably called for in the Instructions for Use for the labels.
  5. heathervaught
    You are absolutely right, Marilyn. As a donor center with a Reference Lab, we do perform certain antigen typing tests and post results to the Donation, not just to individual components. Some examples: A and B antigens D antigen C, c, E, e antigens (we can test for these using Donor samples on the Olympus) Any antigen tested only using molecular methods (Bio Array)
  6. heathervaught
    Our procedure states: Donors 70+ who have donated any type of donation before: accpetable for apheresis Donors 70+ who have never donated before: acceptable with statment from donor's doctor that they are acceptable for pheresis donation Donors 100+: Defer indefinitely for all product types
  7. heathervaught
    I don't know if this will work, but I have an old video clip of a platelet swirling. It may be hard to see, but watch around the edges and the bottom of the bag.
  8. heathervaught
    So sorry for your loss, Rebecca.
  9. heathervaught
    Hi Liz, Based on your post #25 above, I think that all of the statements are in agreement. Per Standards, A platelet containing 2 mL of RBC or more requires a crossmatch (note that even a D+ unit would be compatible if the patient has not made anti-D). According to my experience, a clear, yellow component contains less than approximately 0.2 mL of RBCs. The Technical Manual states that, a platelet may contain enough RBCs to stimulate an immune response in some patients. If you chose NOT to issue Rh immune globulin and the patient develops anti-D, what do you do? For any subesquent RBC transfusions, they would only get D-negative AHG-crossmatch compatible units. If you transfuse a platelet that contains 0.2 mL of D+ RBCs to a patient who has anti-D, will they develop any adverse symptoms? I really don't know.
  10. heathervaught
    It is with great sadness that I report that blood banker Larry Smrz passed away over the weekend. There is very little informaiton available at this time, but I thought that Larry's friends on BloodBankTalk would want to know. http://hosting-tributes-24789.tributes.com/show/Larry-Smrz-89295193
  11. heathervaught
    We will not distribute a platelet product if it does not swirl.
  12. heathervaught
    In your pheresis platelets, the RBC concentration is basically 0. A pheresis platelet containing 0.2 mL of RBCs is visibly red-tinged (I spiked a unit of platelets and added RBCs at varying concentrations to determine this). I will comfortably say that a clear, yellow apheresis platelet product contains less than 0.2 mL of RBCs.
  13. heathervaught
    There is an article in Transfusion: Volume 34, Issue 10, pages 929–934, October 1994, that goes into great detail on seroconversion rates. This is from the Summary: "The accrued evidence suggests that RBCs and platelets, WBC reduced by filtration can be considered at least equivalent to CMV-seronegative components in preventing TT-CMV... If one chooses to use seronegative units as a primary means of preventing TT-CMV, then filtered blood should be used if seronegative units are in limited supply." At my facility, the MDs support the use of leukoreduced blood as CMV-safe, but not all of our hospital customers choose to do so.
  14. heathervaught
    Wow...2 liters out plus 13 liters in sure sounds like enough for circulatory overload to me! To David's point - it's probably not the RBCs that did him in, but the other 12L of fluids that did. According to the Technical Manual, "...hypertension is a constant feature in TACO, whereas it is only a transient manifestation in TRALI." (16th ed, page 735). You only have 2 BPs listed, but there should be more information in the patient's chart that would tell you if that BP of 155/91 is persistent or transient.
  15. heathervaught
    That's incredible, Cliff! Considering all of the success of bloodbanktalk, I'm sure that you will have lots of support for the new site. Good luck!
  16. heathervaught
    We will use extra unit numbers from the back of the main bag as long as everything is still integrally connected.
  17. heathervaught
    Can you add it to whatever form/tag/electronic document they use to document vital signs, etc. during the transfusion? That way it wouldn't add any extra steps to your process for issuing blood.
  18. heathervaught
    We have summer blood drives at places of employment...the most successful ones are where a lot of people work together...warehouses, manufacturing facilities, etc.
  19. heathervaught
    Once the sample is in the tube, I would allow it to rock for several minutes (see the previous post), but test it as soon as possible, and at room temp (not refrigerated!). As for the tube type, whatever is going to be used in your routine is what you should use for your validation. I would also recommend waiting at least 24 hours from when the products are collected to obtain the samples. You will find that samples from "fresh" products will have lower platelet counts than those allowed to relax for a time period prior to sampling (we noticed this when we went from sampling for counts on Day 0 to Day 1).
  20. heathervaught
    We do this, as well! We collect an EDTA tube at the time that we sample for BacT/ALERT testing, weigh the "main" bag, determine if it is eligible to be split (by weight), then equilibrate the product and weigh the potential "daughter" products. If at least one of the "daughter" products has a yield >3 x 10^11, we cut them apart and label them with the yield calculated using the "Main" bag concentration. We also have the variance that Deb mentioned -- we only test for pH at end of storage, but our FDA CSO required that we re-calculate the platelet yield using the weight after the pH sample is removed (2-5 grams).
  21. heathervaught
    Your medical director, being allowed to "practice" medicine, can allow the donor to donate more frequently if he/she can back it up as "medical necessity" (i.e. your HLA-matched donor).
  22. heathervaught
    We use tie tags here as well.
  23. heathervaught
    In theory...I would imagine that any immunosuppressant drug would prevent alloimmunization (note: no medical basis for this, it's just an idea)...but the side effects of a drug are probably worse than developing an alloantibody. And you're never going to prevent anti-A and anti-B, so don't worry about being out of a job :-).
  24. heathervaught
    YOU CAN DO IT!!!! Good luck!!! :clap::clap:
  25. heathervaught
    Awe, thanks you guys :-). I'm quite fond of them both...although the little guy doesn't let me get much sleep at night.
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