Dr. Pepper Posted March 17, 2010 Share Posted March 17, 2010 I am in the market for an infrared thermometer to take a rapid temperature reading of the interior of a blood component. Any recommendations? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adiescast Posted March 17, 2010 Share Posted March 17, 2010 I just purchased an infrared thermometer through Cardinal "SP brand Traceable" I can't give you any comparisons or long term outcome, but it takes rapid temperatures and was reasonably priced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carolyn swickard Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 I recently purchased an infrared thermometer and a blood transport container datalogger system from http://www.global-sensors.com/ - they were recommended by the Minnesota Thermal Science - the guys that have the Golden Hour blood transport systems. They were nice to work with and offer yearly calibration services and battery changing and recalibrating of the dataloggers. I haven't needed those services yet, but I hope to have good service when I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Eye Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Is this infrared Thermometer approved to use for blood products??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carolyn swickard Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 Is this infrared Thermometer approved to use for blood products???I'm sorry - I don't know - you would have to ask the company. Who "approves" thermometers for blood anyway? What regulations are involved? Which accrediting agencies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adiescast Posted March 22, 2010 Share Posted March 22, 2010 I don't think anyone "approves" thermometers for blood bank use. You are required to have documentation that the thermometer is accurate within the measurement range for which you are using it. The infrared that I purchased is NIST traceable and came with a certificate. I suppose if that was not enough for comfort, you could do an in house validation to compare it with other thermometers that you are using for blood temperature readings. Or you could use whatever method you used to determine that the existing thermometers in use with your blood are approved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBKT Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Word of warning. A few years back we tried to validate an infrared thermometer. (I don't remember what brand it was.) We found a big variance in temp readings depending on how far you held the unit away from the bag, what kind of angle you held it at, and which part of the bag you aimed the beam at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drsbright Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Does anyone out there know of any inexpensive serological centrifuges (for 12 x 75) tubes. We are an MLT program and need several for our multiple campuses in Central Indiana. Most of those on the market are at least $2500 each. SMBIndianapolis, Indiana Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Pepper Posted March 23, 2010 Author Share Posted March 23, 2010 Thanks adiescast and cswickard for the suggestions. Do your instruments really work well? My clinical engineering dept. found a few infrared thermometers around the hospital but the closest we could get to the "real" temp was 6o from a RBC unit taken from a 3.5o fridge. A mock unit of 10% glycerol with a thermometer in it also read 6o instead of 3.5o.Adiescast, do you have a product # for the Cardinal one? There are several "SP brand Traceable" in the catalog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMcCord Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 My boss handed me one last week that is Cardinal catalogue # T2971-11. One of the advantages of this model is that you can adjust the emissivity to obtain truer readings. There was another thread somewhere on this site, maybe a year ago, that discussed infared thermometers and the emissivity of blood, if only I can find it. There was a really informative discussion about the whole subject. I've just been playing with our new one today and I can get readings on red cell units that vary by less than 1 degree from the refrigerator temp. Ditto for platelet single donor units. We had been experimenting with a different model that ate batteries at an alarming rate and gave up on it for that reason - sorry, I don't remember what it's model # was but it was not gun-shaped like this one is. We did discover with that one that you do indeed need to be very careful about how far from the bag you are pointing it. I think your procedure would have to specify a distance at which it must be used when taking temps. If the temp is close to a temp range limit (say 9 degrees for shipped blood), we will require that our regular temp probe be the final word on acceptability. We are planning on using the gun as a quick temp screener. Dr Pepper - the temp problem you had with the 10% glycerol bottle may have been because of the color of what you were trying to read (or maybe I should say, lack of color). The previous infrared thermometer we played with warned that temps of clear glass or plastic or liquids were not going to read as accurately as something with some color. I'm remembering that this maybe had something to do with the emissivity of the object being pointed at ??? I think that was something that was also discussed in the previous thread. (I wish I had been more attentive in physics classes!)If I can find the thread, I will post the name of it here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMcCord Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 OK...I found the other thread...started by me! - forgot that part of the discussion. The title is 'Infrared Thermometer Validation', dated 7/30/2008. Someone on that post said that the emissivity for blood in a clear plastic bag should be 0.85. (Our new gun came pre-set with an E value of 0.95, which is supposed to cover 90% of anything you want to use it for, though not apparently blood bags.) Whether or not that value should change for the bags that are less than clear, I don't know. There was no reference given, so my next mission will be to track that down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adiescast Posted March 23, 2010 Share Posted March 23, 2010 Thanks adiescast and cswickard for the suggestions. Do your instruments really work well? My clinical engineering dept. found a few infrared thermometers around the hospital but the closest we could get to the "real" temp was 6o from a RBC unit taken from a 3.5o fridge. A mock unit of 10% glycerol with a thermometer in it also read 6o instead of 3.5o.Adiescast, do you have a product # for the Cardinal one? There are several "SP brand Traceable" in the catalog.The catalog number on the box is T2971-9. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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