jmm8427

There's a lot out there but I know Immucor has a webinar coming up Oct 31st: https://immucor.webinato.com/register

It sounds like if at that point (after throwing everything at it including DTT and papain) you don't have the rare antisera/cells and reagents to identify the antibody then you are going to have to send it out anyways and the reference lab will probably end up repeating most of that testing in order to ID the reactivity on their end. You are right, you have to consider that implementing trypsin is a big project with SOP revisions, may involve added costs, is known to have stability issues, and how often do you expect you will really need it and keep your staff competent? Will it really have any added benefit to your testing? From personal experience in a smaller reference lab with limited rare reagents as well as in a larger IRL, I would say it sounds like you may want to wait on the trypsin until you have a better inventory of rare reagents to aid in completing antibody ID?

One could argue that by doing the panel first you are being efficient and potentially saving time with antibody identification if something is detected. But by doing the screen you are saving reagent/cost. I'm not sure there is a right or wrong answer to this question?

I agree, my experience with trypsin is not good either. It took us quite a few tries to get it correct - the stability was the biggest issue. It took lots of time to figure that out

Sigma-aldrich?

We go straight for the panel, we're an IRL so I don't know if it's different between hospital and reference lab?

I totally agree! And, from personal experience, finding the people with this deeper knowledge of blood groups is getting harder and harder to find... Are you looking for a position in KY by any chance?

Good point Malcolm, and you are correct in that it is implied the candidate must have detailed blood bank knowledge with the Specialist in Blood Banking (SBB) degree requirement. I would find it extremely difficult to pass the SBB exam without this knowledge

Kentucky Blood Center is looking for a Reference Laboratory Manager for their Immunohematology Reference Laboratory (AABB IRL), see below and this link: http://kybloodcenter.org/about-us/careers/

I think the manual we have asks us to replace them on a regular basis (every 2yrs? I don't have it in front of me), we do not validate (or re-validate) after replacing

A little off topic but related to DARA: Some of my techs are reporting that hand-washing the tubes in tube testing (PeG) versus using a cell washer is more likely to give negative reactions with DARA samples. I wonder if anyone else has experienced this?

Just like tbostock we've used the packing material or cut up a sponge... if it gets soiled just throw it out and cut up more.

Thank you for speaking Malcolm! It was a pleasure to see you and the entire SCABB conference was excellent!

Where does it say to do it semi-annual? Our facility is being inspected soon, I think it'd be a good thing to know...thanks!

I agree, so annoying! I'm at a blood center and had quite a few regular platelet donors come up with anti-Wra with this screen cell lot...