Daily QC for tube & gel type cards

[bevydawn]

I have a couple of QC questions, one about traditional daily QC and one for those people using MTS cards to perform ABORh types. We are currently in the process of switching our primary method of performing types from the traditional tube method to the gel method. What do you use as the negative controls for the reverse type? I've never sat down and questioned why we do our current QC the way we do because it has always been the same since I have been here, but for the tube, we only run 6 tubes: A, B, D, D2 (which is with Ortho Confidence System cell 2), A reverse, and B reverse. Everything is positive except the D with confidence cell 1. Trying to incorporate gel type QC has me questioning if this is enough for our current methods(?).

Our gel systems specialist sent me a copy of Ortho's QC for the gel cards and it requires group AB plasma known to lack unexpected antibodies. According to their procedure 2 cards are run, one with confidence cell 1 and the confidence antibody solution (results as AB neg) and the other with confidence cell 2 and the AB plasma (results as O pos). I'm curious if this is what other facilities do for their QC and if so, where do you get your AB plasma? (We rarely ever have AB patients!). Anyone who can offer up any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!!

[lef5501]

We have the MTS gel cards, both ABO and IgG. We use the MTS2 diluent as our negative control for both the ABO and IgG cards. This way, we can also check to see if the diluent has been contaminated.

[donellda]

We use 6% albumin for our negative control.

[Mabel Adams]

We only do screens not types in gel so far. We use a known neg patient sample for the screen neg control.

Can your blood supplier give you some AB plasma? Can you use the "plasma" from the segments on an AB unit? (that might be dicey since there really isn't that much plasma there--mostly Adsol).

What might cause a false positive in a gel reverse type? There's the card, the diluent, the cells and the plasma. Would any of the first 3 cause a false positive reaction with plasma but not with albumin, diluent or any of the other suggested controls? If there would be no difference then those should work as controls.

[galvania]

I presume you are using a1 and B cells, either from a specific manufaturer or making your own using a specific diluent. Therefore what actually needs to be controlled is the card and the diluent as well as the specificity of the cells. I would suggest that you use a know group A and a known group B with no known antibodies. then you will have a positive and a negative for each cell

[Eagle Eye]

You can use saline for backtyping or as negative screen. You can also take on ped AB unit and prepare small aliqout and freeze it.

[David Saikin]

I use the Immucor CorQC system for my + qc. For negative I use an 3% O neg suspension and the MTS 2+ diluent for both cells and antibodies - I can find out if my cells and/or diluent are contaminated.

[Sandy L]

We do QC on ABD reverse gel cards on ProVue. Our controls are A Neg and B Pos. Ortho does not provide a QC kit for ProVue QC so ProVue users must manufacture their own QC reagents. These 2 controls provide positive and negative reactions for ABO forward, reverse and anti-D. Our current manual test method is tube.

[csjuarez]

We do QC on ABD reverse gel cards on ProVue. Our controls are A Neg and B Pos. Ortho does not provide a QC kit for ProVue QC so ProVue users must manufacture their own QC reagents. These 2 controls provide positive and negative reactions for ABO forward, reverse and anti-D. Our current manual test method is tube.

Ortho does now market a QC kit for the ProVue. It is called Alba Q-Check and consists of 4 whole blood samples: 1) A-neg with anti-D, 2) O-pos with anti-c, 3) B-pos antibody screen neg, 4) A2B-pos antibody screen neg. We use this for our ProVue QC only, but it could be used for your manual QC of the gel cards as well. We do not use the gel cards for manual ABO-Rh typing and we use Immucor's Cor QC for all the tube testing QC, using anti-A,B for the negative antibody screen control (gel).

[UKCAT]

Does anyone use the Biohit electronic pipettors with gel? If so, how often do you check the performance of the pipettors in house? Thanks.

[AMcCord]

We check the Biohit pipettes quarterly in house. We have found that it pays to check them frequently - we've had to replace two of them 3 months after they checked out OK.

[Likewine99]

We QC them, in house, every 6 months.

[cindym]

We have the biohit pipettors and they are checked quarterly. Quarterly is suggested (and I take that as recommended) in the manual for the pipettor.

[babsglab]

I use a Biohit and am waiting to see if anyone replied. I send it once a year (twice a year was recommended) to Cal Scientific in N.J. for accuracy and precision checks, I don't know of anyone closer to home (Maine). The company recommended twice a year but it is expensive.

I've had the Biohit for about 3 years, it has issues. I clean it with alcohol about once a month, it draws up too much every so often.

If you can afford it I'd send it to Cal Scientific twice a year as recommended.

[Karen Olsen]

We do not use the Biohit but we cal our BB pipettes quarterly. I believe this frequency is dictated by state requirements which are more stringent than CAP, manufacturer etc.

[Gerald]

We have a ProVue and use Alba Q-Chek. We are seeing a decreased reactivity with the Reverse B cells on the ABD Rev gel card. We used to get 3+ to 4+ but now we're getting 1+ to 2+.Is anyone else seeing this happening?

[cin]

We make up 0.8% screen cell suspensions from the 3%. We test these daily against the diluted antibody in the ortho confidence kit, and against a patient who is type O with no known antibodies. For the ABD QC, we use ortho confidence cell 1 and 2. One is AB Neg, and the other is O Pos. We QC these daily. Then for the tube, we will QC A, B, AB, D, A1cells, A2cells, Bcells, IgG, Check cells and polyspecific AHG.

[PammyDQ]

We use 6% albumin for our negative control.

So do we...