Bio-Rad / Diamed Antigen Cards and IH-500 Testing

[AuntiS]

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for anyone with experience using the Bio-Rad or Diamed antigen typing cards.

We are validating (verification) their use in our lab. We are using the Rh/Kell card, and single antigen cards for Jka, Jkb, Fya, Fyb, S and s. So far we love them for manual column agglutination testing.

We also have the Bio-Rad IH-500.

I guess I'm looking for any experience using the cards an the automated platform. Pros/cons. What you use for QC and how it is programmed. Any other feedback. Anything you have is greatly appreciated!

sandra (This will also be posted on the Blood Bank Professionals group on Facebook, so please excluse the multiple posts ) 

[Dr.habsi]

Hi everyone, 

 

We have used the Bio-Rad cards for several years now and it's one of the best methods we have. As a reference lab we use other testing platforms as well. Bio-Rad still comes on the top of the list. You should keep in mind you cant use the S, s, Fya, Fyb antigen cards if the patient is DAT positive as those are polyclonal cards and may give false positive results. We have the IH-1000 and some of our regional labs has the IH-500 and it can be used to run the same manual cards. We also use the commercial QC tubes from Bio-Rad. It's useful for donor phenotyping and screening

[AuntiS]

3 hours ago, Dr.habsi said:

Hi everyone, 

 

We have used the Bio-Rad cards for several years now and it's one of the best methods we have. As a reference lab we use other testing platforms as well. Bio-Rad still comes on the top of the list. You should keep in mind you cant use the S, s, Fya, Fyb antigen cards if the patient is DAT positive as those are polyclonal cards and may give false positive results. We have the IH-1000 and some of our regional labs has the IH-500 and it can be used to run the same manual cards. We also use the commercial QC tubes from Bio-Rad. It's useful for donor phenotyping and screening

Thank you for the feedback!  We are pretty happy with the Bio-Rad cards and IH-500 as well.  I'm still trying to figure out how to automate the antigen typing process with the QC available (needing a single dose for the positive QC) but feel like for our core lab staff using column agglutination for antigen testing has been widely preferred. sandra