KathleenSL

UPDATE!! I sent an email to and got a reply from Mark Yazer - the SCARF site is down for maintenance. Whew - I was afraid it had gone out of existance.

Malcolm - I tried scarfex.jove.prohosting.com but got the message below. Can you access the site? Forbidden You don't have permission to access / on this server. Apache Server at scarfex.jove.prohosting.com Port 80

I have logged in but cannot get the message board to come up. Keep getting a "The web page cannot be found" message.

Does anyone know what happened to the SCARF site?

We use EtQ Reliance softare for our document control process. All policies, procedures, forms and reference documents are reviewed annually by the document owner (department supervisor/manager), laboratory director and quality assurance department.

We use 10 x 75 mm test tubes so our saline volumes are different. I have attached the settings that we use for our various programs.

The specific CFR section cited in our Transfusion Service assessment was 42 CFR 493.1256 (3) (iii): (3) At least once each day patient specimens are assayed or examined perform the following for - (iii) Test procedures producing graded or titered results, include a negative control material and a control material with graded or titered reactivity, respectively. We also run the previous (base line) sample with our prenatal titers and we could argue that it is the "positive contorl material". We would still be out of compliance for the initial prenatal titer or for the isohemagglutinin titers.

We recently had a CMS/CLIA inspection for our transfusion service (new CLIA number). The assessor told them that they needed to run positive controls with their Anti-A and Anti-B titration procedure [CFR 493.1256]. Our current isohemagglutinin and prenatal titration procedures do not include a control antibody(s). Do you run controls? If yes, what do you use?

During off (on-call) hours and on 2nd shift (only have 1 tech working) we have the tech review their own work with back-up calls to the Supervisor On-Call as needed. The next business day the workup is reviewed by another tech.

Has anyone been able to find the SCARF site or gotten an update on when it will be available?

Our center only sends out "historical" antigen negative units if the customer has the antisera to perform the confirmatory typings themselves. The "historical" antigen negative units have a tag on them that states that the typings must be confirmed.

We freeze red blood cell units using the Baxter/Fenwal 4R2422 bag. We are running out of the flat metal cannisters that hold these bags.

Does anyone know where to get metal canisters that will hold the Baxter/Fenwal 4R2422 bag?

We had unresolvable problems with our two CW 2+ cellwashers - washing away cells. Thermo took them back and refunded our money. We now have two Helmer cellwasher and so far no problems.

Recieved mine by email notification. Did think it was "interesting" that the recall was for a product that had expired 10 days prior to the date of the notice.

We are a moderate sized immunohematology reference laboratory with 4.0 FTEs and have been using Antigen Plus for at least 10 years. We are currently on version 6.1. We do not use the antibody identification portion of the software. Haven't validated it and currently don't plan to validate it. Like others I just don't "feel" confident in letting a program evaluate test results. We use Antigen Plus to create our selected cell panels - we make alot of them. We currently get the Medion and Immucor panel data files - Ortho panels are available if you go to the newest version. We also enter the the antigen profiles for our frozen rare reagent rbcs. The amount of time saved and elimination of transcription errors has beeen well worth the cost of the program. We can generally create and printout a selected cell panel containing 10 or more cells in 10 minutes or less. My staff would mutiny if I took away their Antigen Plus.

After 6 months of use, the motor seized on 1 of our 2 new CW2+. I have CW2s in my lab that we have been using for 15 years and have never had this problem! The motor has been replaced but we are still having problems with the cell buttons being washed away. We have the saline volume set at the recommended volume for our tube size and have checked that the tubes are not over filling. But at the end of the wash cycle (could be 1 or 4 - doesn't matter) you never know when you will get the nasty empty tube (or so few cells left that it is unreadable) surprise. Our technical service tech has observed the problem firs hand and has no resolution to date. We are still waiting to hear from Thermo.

We use Safe-T-Vue 10 on units that are stored in a remote refrigerator. These units are placed in a cooler and taken on the medical helicopter runs. If the units are not transfused or wasted the inventory is rotated every 4 weeks. According the Williams Laboratories, Inc. information sheet the is no time limit on how long the indicators can remain on the units.

We have been using our 2 new CW2+ for only 5 months and haven't seen the chipping paint or lid problems yet. Dripping yes - we were told this was normal because the CW2+ drain from the bottom instead of having a catch ring in the lid like the old CW2s. Our pet peeves with the CW2+ are: 1) You can't manually add a wash solution and then spin and decant (no step button to advance the wash cycle past the fill stage). 2) We can't hook more than one cellwasher up to a saline cube. We used to have 2 cell washers attached to a saline cube using a Y coupler. However when we (and the service technician) tried this setup with the CW2+ we were unable to get the instruments to pump the minimum required saline volumes for the wash cycle. Now we have to deal with finding space for an extra saline cube.

As a blood center IRL, we only send "historical negative" units to those facilities that have antisera (or potent patient antibody) and can do their own confirmatory typings. The historical antigen label/tag on the units clearly states that the typings must be confirmed. Units that have been confirm typed by the IRL have a different label/tag that states which antigens have been confirm typed and if the typings were done using licensed or unlicensed antisera.

We have used Antigen Plus for years. It can be put on a network and can be accessed from multiple workstations at once. In addition to uploading Immucor and Medion panels to the database, we manually input our frozen rare reagent rbcs into the database. As a reference laboratory, we run more "selected cell" panels than routine commercial panels. We have found the time saved in creating these panels and the elimination of transcription errors well worth the cost of the program.

I believe Ortho makes an Anti-C3d reagent and an Anti-C3b,-C3d reagent, but not an Anti-C3b reagent. A reagent that just contained anti-C3b would be of limited use (just IATs), it shouldn't be used as the sole reagent in DAT to detect complement (C3d and/ or C3b) on the patient's RBCs.

We keep antibody workup files/panel sheets on site for a minimum of 10 years. Those files that have been inactive for 10 years are moved to off site storage where they are currently being kept indefinitely.

We are a manual gel user. We do use both IAT and monoclonal reagents to do antigen typings in gel. We validated each antisera in gel. You will need to decide whether to use Diluent 2 or saline for you 0.8% when you validate. We chose saline (same as tube testing & reagent directions). We use Buffered Cards for the monoclonals and follow the reagent incubation temperature. We chose to use 15 minutes as the incubation time during reagent validation (fell with in the manufacturers' recommend times). We do not dilute any antisera. The IAT reagents work great in the IgG Cards. Occassionally we get some questionable results with the monoclonals in the Buffered Cards and need to repeat testing using tubes.

How well was the eluate spun? Was the tech careful during the transfer to a clean tube step? The eluate may have had residual cell (red cell, white cell, platelet) stroma in it. This can even interfer with tube testing results. We have included a second spin and second transfer step of the eluate before testing.