BrianD

LOL, yep....the Isabel Dalhousy mysteries:clap:

i've got the paper and from what i can tell the argument is on whether or not the distributions seen are dependent upon some kind of balancing selection or not. basically, it seems to me it depends on which flavor of math one subscribes to.......interesting stuff for the Sunday Philosophy Club to fuss about but no camps' claims are anything i'd bet the barn on. i don't think any of it will impact day-to-day bloodbanking any time soon. just an opinion. points to anyone who catches my obscure "literary" reference.

i was unaware of the Anstee paper. i'll see if my med librarian can get it for me (he hides from me).

yep!!! you got it! Toxoplasma gondii.

1. Cartwright (Yt) is acetylcholinesterase. 2. Kell (K) is a zinc-dependent endopeptidase 3. Dombrock (Do) is an ADP-ribosyltransferase. which parasite's geographic distribution is believed to account for the geographic variation in the distribution of the RhD negative allele?

yep, Cad polyagglutination!!!! i've never dealt with Cad but have encountered a microbially mediated PA involving necrotizing enterocolitis.

honestly i'm unsure of a relationship with Tamm-Horsfall protein but there is likely similar structures between them. This phenomenon was first described by Cazal, et al. in 1968. Sanger, et al. in 1971 showed that these cells were agglutinable by anti-Sd(a). these red cells accumulate abnormal glycophorin O-glycans and the condition has been likened to an over expression of Sd(a). here's the biggest hint, most normal adult adult sera contain anti-Sd(a) and will agglutinate these RBCs. these RBCs are agglutinable by the following lectins: Glycine soja, Dolichos biflorus, Salvia horminum, and Leonurus cardiaca. i need to write better questions, i'm rusty since i don't teach anymore (well, i don't get to torture undergraduates anymore).

Q. What is elevated in Pre term infants: PT or PTT?

i thought you had to use fresh cells in the subsequent rounds because all the available antigen became saturated during adsorption? i'm kind of queasy thinking about how many R1R1 and R2R2 cells i've been discarding after use.........i'm rr so sometimes, i've used what's on tap for these.

have you repeated this manually in tubes? pre-washing all the cells used would likely sort out the possible anti-biotic ab if that is the issue....

didn't know where to put this but i had to "fix" this: patient had one cell in a 3 cell screen go down. standard panocell-20 followed. only 1 cell went down. auto control/DAT both neg. extended panels 1 and 2 all cells negative. 2 xm compatible units issued and patient went home feeling great. the one cell that went down in the P20 panel happened to have been typed as Diego(a) pos. so, ab was identified and reported as anti-Diego(a) based upon only 1 cell in 55 being typed for this antigen and being agglutinated and 53 cells of unknown Diego(a) status not reacting. made me want to take up drinking as a profession. it is very hard to get something OUT of a patient's medical record once discharged and it goes to wherever the medical records dept is located. it could have been anti-Diego(a) but it certainly was not PROVEN to be........when i took it to the chief tech and medical director (needed someone at a higher pay grade to unlock patient records after discharge) they both turned really interesting colors.

yes!! the answer to #1 is An/Wj (aka "anton"). http://www.bloodbanktalk.com/bgs/aginfo.cfm?sys=37&ag=309 is a bit of linky-lurv that has more info. and for #2. :cries::cries: take it away, Dr. Pepper! b.

we require a special consent signed by the patient(or his/her representative) and the physician before issuing that indicates that they understand the risks involved in receiving "least incompatible" RBCs. we still use the term "least" because we avoid, if possible, using units that react more than 2+wk with the patient serum. i fall in the "incompatible is incompatible" camp but what our medical director wants, he gets. we do try to phenotypically match the units as closely as possible if we have a history (our WAIHAs tend to be frequent flyers with us).

ok, i'm no longer under anti-malarial therapy. now, incomprehensibility is due to PGTips overdose. but i have 2 questions: which antigen possibly related to the CD44 marker can serve as a receptor for some strains of Haemophilus influenzae? what is this thing called "vacation?" b.

yeah, something like that! b.

Lisa? can you pose the question? i'm on my off-rotation and deeply into my anti-malarial prophylaxis (gin and tonic).

ok, i'm away from my books but i'm thinking anti-Salis and anti Indian( are antibodies to the same antigen on the CD44 marker. CD44 is not strongly expressed in neonates and in pregnant women.

oh, and aren't HAMAbs(human anti-murine antibodies) a lot of fun, too? try explaining to the doc why he can't get a couple of dozen immunochemistries because the patient's serum contains activity against the test system itself. some of these you can make "go away" by heating the patient's serum at 56 Celsius for about 30 minutes but this also screws up the target analytes in most cases. patients with anti-lipid antibodies can be a pain, too. fortunately, prepping the cell suspensions for forward typing dilutes out HAMAbs, usually.

our interface b/n the ECHO and HCLL improved tremendously when the IS wizards realized that they couldn't piggy-back something else on our interface server. we also have found that doing a complete shutdown and restart as part of our daily maintenance protocol resets the interface and keeps things going smoothly b/n the ECHO and HCLL. the installations went well and the tech service people from Mediware were very patient and understanding and most importantly, helpful!

each facility has a different culture, especially when it comes to calculating pay scales. i've seen labs that don't recognize NCA credentials (tho' they're few and far between, now). i had an employer that failed to acknowledge my specialist certification so i walked across the street and went to work for one who did. after years in a research lab, it dawned on me that my first loyalty is to myself. it's a mercenary attitude but i cannot understand some co-workers i've had who've been locked into a pay grade for more than 20 years but are unwilling to try to find better opportunities. they're perfectly willing to complain about it but not willing to follow through on it. my suggestion to anyone not pleased with their situation and feel that there's no real means of redress available to correct the situation to begin looking around. as credentialed laboratorians, we have very marketable and valuable skill sets. there are many opportunities in industry for people who understand TQM/TQI.

during Katrina we had some elder-folk come in to have B12/Folate levels drawn because their doc dosed them the day before. this is a peeve of mine.......after the loading dose, it will take several days of some serious pee-ing before they drop low enough to not exceed linearity. oy. :sarcastic

the practice at our facility is that the MT generalists usually are put at a higher pay grade than people with only the C or BB or M because they are required to perform to the same level of competency in every area of the laboratory that they work (which may be a quirk of our facility) as the specialists are expected to perform to in their single area........and most of our MT generalists rotate into all departments including blood bank, microbiology, molecular, and special chemistries/immunology/toxicology. this means they have to submit to competency assessments, surveys, and con-ed about 5-6 X more than someone who can work only one department. the way the HR devils explain it to me, they'd rather have one or two folks restricted to a single dept. mad at them versus nearly 2 dozen generalists hopping mad.

a reference lab i worked at did semen analyses for an IVF clinic. most would arrive early Saturday A.M. and the responsibility for completing them was assigned on a rotating schedule. one particular saturday none was submitted and we thought that a terrible shame because the gal scheduled to do them always finagled other folks into helping her complete them. we had happened to get a new handsoap that looked like ejaculate. so, we filled a couple dozen specimen cups and generated false requisitions (easy since the clinic wasn't interfaced and everything was submitted on down-time reqs.) the look on her face when the courier dropped off several full cartons of specimens was priceless. she actually "counted 3" of them before she noticed the strong lemon-lavender smell of soap and began to notice that the clients had names like "I.P. Frehley" or worse.

we sometimes get patients who show an "EDTA-dependant anti-platelet" activity and we have to take the platelet count from a citrated specimen. on the peripheral smear from the EDTA treated whole blood, the few platelets that are found tend to be agranular and "shaped funny."

hi Donna, before Immucor did the "fix" [don't know what they did but the problem is uncommon now with later lots] it seemed to me that the false positive specimens tended to have elevated WBCs. is this similar to your experience? i think i just arrived at yet ANOTHER project. oy. b.