Bill Sinn

this is a late reply... for units issued routinely to a med/surg ward, we check a returned unit with an infra red (validated) scanning thermometer.. range is 1-10 deg C. These units are considered to be in transit. We have found that most units out of the BB for 15 minutes will be warmer than 10 deg C. when returned. Units in a validated cooler have irreversible Temp indicators attached (6 deg C). They can be in cooler for 8 hours and are considered to be in storage.

Hi, I came to this thread late! Our Ortho polyspecific AHG contains Anti C3: both anti C3d and Anti C3b. Our monospecific anti complement contains only anti C3d.... so it is possible to get stronger reactions on complement coated cells with our poly reagent vs the monospecific. Bill

Similar to cthherbal's response, we also have designed the EPIC electronic blood ordering to ask the question 'Does patient have Sickle Cell Anemia?" when blood is ordered. the quesion and answer appear on the blood orders in blood bank. Rh, Kell matching for unsensitzed patients Add Jka, Jkb, Fya, S, s matching for a patient with any clin. significant Ab. Add Fyb only for known Anti Fyb or Anti Fy3

from medium size hospital.. Vitals: pre transfusion, 15 min, 30 min, post tranfusuion, Compliance: somewhat spotty

I have seen this "resting" period in other hospital's SOP's from time to time. It says that platelets should be agitated for 10 minutes after transport or upon receipt back in the blood bank after issuing. I have never found a reference for this- not in AABB,CAP, Circ of Information-- nowhere. One hospital that had this requirement could not provide a reference for me, either.

My experience with the SafTVue 10: Make sure both the RBC unit and the indicator are COLD when applying indicator. Work quickly. Apply in the middle of the unit (the fat part). Don't hold the RBC unit in your warm paw, especially the are where the indicator is. Don't know what "inside appropriate porter" is.. We have had very good experience with SafTVue 10 on RBC units inside a validated cooler with cold refrigerant packs.. up to 8 hours. If RBC is left at room temperature, the indicator will turn to red within 10 to 15 minutes. Bill

For SunQuest 7.1, we are using Print Tek PrintMaster 862. This is for a 2 part form, regular paper (not card stock). Works great. .Bill

Oh, Most Knowledgable Blood Bankers.... Is there a reference for the answer to this question? A unit of frozen plasma (FFP or FP24HR) expires at midnight. It is thawed at 2200 hours on the day it would expire. Usually, thawed FFP or FP24 is good for 24 hours from the time of thawing. Is the expiration of the thawed product 2400 (midnight) or 2200, the next day (24 hours)? This is NOT a 5 day plasma question ;-). Thanks in advance, Bill

We only QC the new lot with the new controls that come with the kit. I don't think there is any requirement to do this crosschecking with controls from the old kit. In any case CAP TRM.31350 states "If there are multiple components of a reagent kit, the laboratory uses componenets of reagent kits only within the kit lot unless otherwise specified by the manufacturer." Bill

Mabel, Cells 8 and 10 on that lot of Panel A are the only cells having homozygous expression of N. Bill

Getting back to the original post.. for a cold agglutinin reacting in a gel Ab screen, we have had some success in "prewarming" the test system--the patient's plama, the gel card, and the screening cells pipeted into the gel card-- and then pipeting the plasma into the card. I know the card will cool down to room temp. during centrifugation , but sometimes this will work, and you can demonstrate a negatvie Ab screen. Bill

Laura, You do not need to perform a full panel. You need to test sufficient cells to rule out other clinically significant antibodies. For instance, if patient has anti Fya, we would probably test all the Fya negative cells on a panel, and see what still needed to be ruled out. Usually, on a well designed panel, other antibodies would be ruled out by testing the Fya negative cells. You may need to run just 2 or 3 cells in addition to your negative Ab screening cells to rule out "others" when the antibody is Anti K or Anti E. Bill

We do as Dr Pepper, above. The original CAP requirement from about 8 years ago allowed performing rechecks for non Group O patients only, and this would satisfy the requirement. The CAP wording has since changed, but we are still doing rechecks (2nd stick) on NEW non Gp O patients only. Again, this is to prevent major ABO mismatch. Bill

There are probably several differences. For instance; Issuing blood products.. CAP "the procedure for signing blood.. out.. provides adequate protection for the potential recipient." TRM.40900 AABB "there shall be a check of..(lists several separate items)" 5.18.2 limiting ABO incompatible plasma including platelets: CAP: for infants only TRM.40740 AABB "shall have a policy concerning transfusion of components containing significant amounts of incompatible ABO antibodies." --implied for all patients. and so on... Bill

We use SafTVue 10 for units going to surgery in an ice chest. If you want to monitor units issued to nursing floors, you would probably want to use STV 10, because the standard is 1 to 10 degrees (transport). My personal experience with STV 10 is that the indicator will change on an RBC unit much sooner than 30 minutes at room temperature. Again, this would be an expensive proposition for each RBC issued routinely from the transfusion service.