SANDRA CORBETT

We Use 2 Heterozygous Cells For Ruling Out Kell, Unless We Are Lucky Enough To Get A Panel In With A Homozygous Kell. Sandy Corbett Jordan Hospital Plymouth, Mass

Simmler Fetal Cell Stain kit is the one we use. It requires no weighing out of anything, and just the use of coplin staining jars. As with any manual method though, their is a pretty big standard deviation among techs performing the counts. But so far we have passed all our CAP surveys

Call immucor Technical services. They will acknowledge the problem over the phone but not by written letter yet. They think it may be some problem with their detector cells in the kit. See the results of the last CAP survey, in which 2/3 of the participants got the Negative sample wrong. They found it positive with a neg KB. Unfortunately, Immucor seems to be the only vendor around, since Ortho pulled out due to their own problems with their Fetalscreen kit two years ago. We are now running in house KB testing with the Simmler stain kit on all positive Fetalscreens. We are taking Negatives, as the company does not see any problem with false negatives, only false positives. Sandy Corbett Blood Bank Manager Jordan Hospital PLymouth, Mass.

Thanks for this email. I was starting to believe that I was the only one out there that knew about Immucor's problem. Even CAP did not know, as evidenced by their response on the Survey. CAP wanted to receive a letter from us, and I guess I will have to write one. Take care, Sandy

Hi Patty, The Immucor Fetalscreen kit has a problem. Immucor acknowleges that it may be the indicator cells in the kit that are causing a false positive reaction. Note the results of the last CAP Survey, in which 66% of the participants got a positive result, when it should have been negative. The kit is yielding a positive result when there has been no fetal bleed (No D or Du pos baby cells in Mother's circulation.)

Are you using the Imucor fetal Screen kit? It has a problem that the manufacturer has not disclosed to users yet. Note that 66% of the participants on the last CAP survey got the negative fetalscreen incorrect. They called it positive, and the fetal cell stain was negative. We have stopped using the kit and reverted to Kleihauer's in house with the Simmler kit until Immucor can resolve its problem. Negative tests are OK. There are no cases of false negatives I guess I will write a letter to CAP. I told them about it, Immucor is silent and studying the problem (they will acknowledge the problem over the phone), and Cap needs a letter to the Chair.

To Mary, If you think Immucor went up, Ortho doubled their prices for traditional blood bank reagents in an apparent attempt to get everyone onthe Gel system. I use gel for Antibody detection and identification only, not for abo typings. THe Immucor base pricing takes me back to Orho's 2007 prices, so I will most likely go with this. Ortho is gouging!!!!! and I have been an Ortho customer for 30 years.