AuntiS

I agree with Ensis01. Sometimes gel can give a false positive - if there is a problem with the card/well or sample (bit of fibrin, etc) - which is resolved upon repeat and/or tube testing. Otherwise, yeah, if you can explain it = great, group specific (meeting all other policy, of course) If not = O. sandra

Sorry - just saw this reply now. Canadian Blood Services tests all donor units for K. If K negative, the donor end label has K- on it. If K positive, the end label doesn't have any K antigen testing information listed - the K+ status is only embedded in the donor unit phenotype barcode. All donor units are treated the same - so the K+ units are available, as all other units are, but it is easy to select a K- unit for females of childbearing potential and who are on a drug like daratumumab. sandra

Hey Nikki, You planning on an IH-1000 or two IH-500? Or a combination with or without the SAXO? sandra

We require any request for blood component or blood product pickup to have the following: Patient Name Patient MRN (i.e. hospital number) Type of product required Location (for phone requests to send via pneumatic tube system) A sticker or other official paper is not required. The info can even be handwritten - but all is required and it has to be correct. sandra

Same. We don't select K negative units once off the dara. Here in Canada, all our units are K typed by Canadian Blood Services. It wouldn't necessarily be more work to select K neg units, but we feel it isn't needed.

We share an LIS with a couple of other hospitals. We allow those previous blood groups to be the confirmation sample. We have access to a validated computer system that pulls results from other hospital LIS systems and matches using a unique ID (here in Ontario Canada it is the OHIP number). Names/DOB are double checked. We allow those for the second blood group as well. All our labs are accredited. I'm not sure what the difference between using the other hospital result in the LIS vs the other validated computer system would be. Also... my experience has been that blood testing done recently is MUCH more reliable than testing from many years ago - even if in the same hospital. Use of automation and positive patient ID systems has greatly reduced the risk of error. sandra

In Canada, all blood components and blood products (derivatives) require informed consent.

Here in Canada, the same sample can be retested IF the sample was collected using positive patient identification. So, here in our lab, we are super lucky because we have MLA who perform phlebotomy on 95% of the patients (some are nurse collected in the ED and ICU). Our MLA use positive patient identification technology (Mobilab). We allow for the retesting of those samples. Anyone else needs a new sample - which we order for lab collection, thus avoiding the workarounds where a second sample is drawn at the same time as the first but tucked away until needed. We also allow the previous ABO to be from another lab. We have access to blood bank results from area hospitals. If the blood group from our hospital matches another hospital we don't need the restest. sandra

I'm so jealous - all these labs where the KB is performed in hematology! Here ours are done in the BB. To be fair, we are a core lab, so the staff performing the test are the same. I would just rather not own the test and all the competency that comes with it

We have been using a Bio-Rad IH-500 (and a SAXO as backup) for about a year now. Very happy with them. They work with the IH-Com that serves as a command centre for both and as middleware. We also use the antibody software and upload our QC to Unity. (We were manual gel/tube prior). sandra

Thanks Ensis01! I haven't even gotten that far yet - so I didn't know that the concentration of DTT is different :) s

When I was trained (many years ago!) we used +/- for microscopic tube reactions. Now, I encourage MLT to only use the microscope if they are looking to verify a mixed field or rouleaux. I suppose there could be other rare times to use a microscope - like an anti-Sda? But generally - no microscope. But they love the microscope...

I'm also developing a procedure for DTT treated cells. Can I assume that the DTT treated cells can be used to help ID antibodies other than daratumumab without additional validation? I am intrigued by the use of DTT for differentiation between IgG and IgM antibodies but I don't think we will go forward with it here at our community hospital

We do the same as Nikki. If an eluate is needed, an acid elution is done. No LUI freeze on the menu. sandra

Nikki - my calendar says it is 4am to 5:30am here! I hope it is available as a recording! sandra