Using ficin treated cells

[csjuarez]

Does anyone have a procedure for testing ficin treated cells? I get the Ortho Panel C which has both treated and untreated cells. Doing the testing itself is not the issue, but I'd like some guidance on when to use this testing and how to interpret the testing that I can put into a procedure which will make since to my bench techs

Thanks!.

[David Saikin]

I use ficin treated cells for a few reasons: 1) if I am at a loss for an id with a great many cells reactive . . . I might ficin pretreat to see what happens. 2) If I know I have an enzyme sensitive ab (Fya or M for example). I might ficin pretreat to see if something is hiding behind it. 3) pretreatment may allow for ABO isoagglutinins to react when they are not or only minimally detectable. Ficin is not routinely used in my blood bank. I don't know how they are today, but in the past I found that ficin pretreated panel cells deteriorated faster than the untreated variety.

[Antrita]

When we first started using the "C" panel I had a few techs that went to the treated cells first even though I had big signs "DON'T USE FIRST!!!". What I finally did was make up some competencies. The ortho ficin cells are really strong on the Rh antigens. I had a weak anti-E, it was really strong in the ficin and not positive on all cells in the untreated panel. I also had 2 patients that looked like they had either a Fya or a Jka. With the ficin the patient with the Fya no longer showed any reaction. The patient with the Jka had reactions at 4+. This seemed to really help us, and we've been using the "C" panel since it was available.

Antrita