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Probably a silly question...


kaleigh

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Good morning! This is probably a very dumb question and I'm sure I should know the answer from school. On Ortho antigrams (maybe all brands? Our facility only uses Ortho so that's what I know), what does "+s" mean for the P antigen? We consider it positive, but what is the s?? A student asked me today, and I couldn't give her an answer. Thanks in advance!

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16 minutes ago, kaleigh said:

This is probably a very dumb question

NO QUESTION IS DUMB if you don't know the answer, and if you never ask it, you will never know the answer.  Having said that, you will, just occasionally, get some pretty dumb answers!

I agree entirely with David Salkin's answer, which, as always, is far from dumb.

When I was working at the Blood Group Reference Laboratory (way back, when it was still in London), it was discovered that I was Ch Negative.  Having not long left school, I got all excited over having a rare blood group, and, I think to bring me back down to Earth, they got me a tee shirt with "I'm Ch Negative" printed on the front.

In the MRC Blood Group Unit, in the same grounds, but quite autonomous (run by Drs Rob Race and Ruth Sanger) was a woman who had an exceptionally strong expression of the P1 antigen.  Having seen my tee shirt, some wit employed there bought her a tee shirt with "I've got strong P" printed on it.  As far as I can remember, she never wore it!!!!!!!!!

I've attached a short PowerPoint lecture about the P1Pk Blood Group System.

The P1PK Blood Group System.pptx

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On 1/30/2020 at 9:29 AM, kaleigh said:

I'm sure I should know the answer from school.

Oh gawwsh I wish we could count on school to teach us the intricacies of immunohematology but it seems these things are truly only taught by 1) loads of experience; 2) engaging with those who have loads of experience; and 3) reading seriously in-depth reference texts.

A bit off topic, but traditionally MLS schools teach immunohematology as one, one-semester course with lab plus clinical rotation. While the clinical rotation solidifies the theory a lot more than the class, I believe our graduates would benefit from a second “Immunohematology II” class covering practical basics such as the types of things similar to OP’s question and things related to more in-depth troubleshooting and discrepancy resolution, and in addition, advanced theory for selection of appropriate components for transfusion for problematic patient needs and emergency situations. Sorry for the slightly untimely ramble....but chemistry, hematology and microbiology get the dual-course treatment, BB should too.

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Oniononorion, I would tend to agree with you that blood transfusion as a whole, and immunohaematology in particular, are always the "bridesmaid and never the bride" in terms of the amount of time devoted to the subjects in taught courses, however, i do have some sympathy with those trying to plan such courses, particularly the practical courses, even when attending a course at a Reference Laboratory, simply because some of the cases are so rare that it cannot be guaranteed that you would see such cases, even if you were in a Reference Laboratory for several weeks.

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20 hours ago, Oniononorion said:

 

A bit off topic, but traditionally MLS schools teach immunohematology as one, one-semester course with lab plus clinical rotation. While the clinical rotation solidifies the theory a lot more than the class, I believe our graduates would benefit from a second “Immunohematology II” class covering practical basics such as the types of things similar to OP’s question and things related to more in-depth troubleshooting and discrepancy resolution, and in addition, advanced theory for selection of appropriate components for transfusion for problematic patient needs and emergency situations. Sorry for the slightly untimely ramble....but chemistry, hematology and microbiology get the dual-course treatment, BB should too.

Things must have changed dramatically as they so often do over the past 42 years but I recall that immunoheamtology received no less emphasis or time than the other disciplines when I was studying in a MT program.  Maybe the program I was in was the exception at the time but I hope not.  Having already completed a BS in Microbiology when I entered the MT program I assumed that would be my area of expertise but after one year after graduation working as a Generalist, I found myself as a full time Blood Banker and never looked back.  While the bulk of my knowledge in Blood Banking was attained "on the job" I always felt the foundational  information I received in class certainly prepared me for my future.  

Wow, we sure hijacked this discussion!!   :coffeecup:

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On ‎2‎/‎1‎/‎2020 at 11:59 AM, John C. Staley said:

Things must have changed dramatically as they so often do over the past 42 years but I recall that immunoheamtology received no less emphasis or time than the other disciplines when I was studying in a MT program.  Maybe the program I was in was the exception at the time but I hope not.  Having already completed a BS in Microbiology when I entered the MT program I assumed that would be my area of expertise but after one year after graduation working as a Generalist, I found myself as a full time Blood Banker and never looked back.  While the bulk of my knowledge in Blood Banking was attained "on the job" I always felt the foundational  information I received in class certainly prepared me for my future.  

Wow, we sure hijacked this discussion!!   :coffeecup:

I graduated from an MLS program in the last 5 years and I had two semesters of clinical chemistry, two semesters of clinical microbiology, one semester hematology, and one semester immunohematology. You can imagine my surprise when I came around in my clinical rotations and tried to grasp what an adsorption was, ha! Anyway, students tend to have a harder time going through Blood Bank for that reason.

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