[ASCP International Certification SBB - Reg]

I would be thanful, if someone could clarify whether ASCP Certification is recognized for working in blood Centers in USA. Now International Certification exam in SBB is also made available for people living in other countries. If technologists working in countries other than USA take the online exam and clear it, can they apply for a post in USA. 

[Positive Autocontrol in gel, negative DAT]

I need a format to record and classify  near miss events that occur in sample collection, intralab testing  and events during blood administration. if someone could provide one such document, I would be thankful.

[Calculating the Frequency for finding antigen negative unit]

Standard text books on blood banking describe the method of calculating the number of units required to be screened before antigen / antigens negative units can be found. For this you should know the frequency of each antigen in the given population. I have given below an examble.

 

Step I

 

Express the negative frequency of each antigen in a given population as a fraction of one in two decimal points and multifly them all and convetrt the resulting fraction into a percentage by multiplying by 100.

 

0.18( c ) x 0.34(Jka) = 0.06 x 100 = 6%

 

Step II

Then divide 100 by this number.

 

100/6 = 16 units

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Diamed Gel card - Donor Card vs Patient card -Reg]

Recently I  joined a relatively new Transfusion service where Diamed ABD confirmation donor gel cards (forward) are used for grouping both patients and donors. (Reverse done manually). On the  donor cards it is clearly mentioned that D VI plus. When I checked up with other blood bank,s I found that they were using patient cards (DVI negative) for both donors and patients and whenever a donor is found to be negative, weak D testing is done and classified accordingly. No weak D testing done on patients. Nobody wants to use two types of cards in the lab, one for donor and other for patient. That sounds sensible. But, I would like to know whether the antisera supplied by Diamed for weak D testing detects both weak D and partial D.

[Fumigation of the Blood Bank]

Is there any well known, approved gudilines for regular cleaning and  fumigation of blood bank premises?.

[Fumigation of the Blood Bank]

During my visit to one blood bank, I found out that they routinely fumigate the blood bank premises excluding the component storage area every 15 days and swabs are taken from instruments including donor couches and if culture is positive the process of cleaning and fumigation is repeated. please comment on this.

[Glass tubes vs Polypropylene tubes]

In blood bank work can we substitute tubes made of unbreakable materials similar to polypropylene or any other material in stead of glass tubes ?

[RH antibody test (likelihood of false positive??)]

I would like to know whether screening blood donors using ABO, D VI+ group confirmation gel cards is enough for detection of weak D. The pack insert is not clear.

Subbusp

[Crossmatch by gel technology only - Is it sufficient ?]

I like to know whether a negative crossmatch by gel technology alone taken as sufficient crossmatch for transfusing red cells. Assuming that atypical antibody screening done again by gel technique. Recently I came across a sample which did not show any atypical antibodies by gel but did show saline reactive Anti A1 antibody reactive at 37 .C . Gel did not pick up this. Is it necessary to do saline crossmatch in addition to gel cross match ?

SPS