My site is getting ready to go live with the Galileo Echo. We are thinking to cut costs by using the Echo reagents for our tube typing. Has anyone out there had any experience with this idea? Do you do your tube types using only anti-D1, or do you routinely use both anti-D1 and anti-D2? Or do you add anti-D2 only when the D1 is negative?

TIA for any thoughts you can share.

Sandi

We have a Galileo and we have used the reagents for both for years. We have the anti-D series 4 and anti-D series 5. The anti-D series 4 is what we had been using for tube testing and that is what we continue to use. We do not use the anti-D series 5 in the tube.

For validating the instrument vs. yourABO/D- tube testing, did you use the same Echo anti-sera as on the instrument? Is this a requirement?

Hi. We just went live with our Echo on May 10, 2010. We use the Anti-D series 4 and 5. We use the same reagents on the Echo and on the bench. We do use both anti-D antisera on the bench as well as on the Echo for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to keep everything consistent so the techs didn't have to think about which reagents to use. This is important for the generalists on the evening and night shifts. Also, when I built the tests into our LIS, I built the calculations to include both antisera. That way we only have one "type" calculation in our LIS. Lastly, for me it kept the ordering of reagents more consitent.

For the validation, since we were using different typing sera prior to the Echo, I validated the Echo first against our current reagents and then validated the Echo to the new type reagents.

Thanks Richardsonj,

We will probably follow a similar path for validation. We have started by comparing to our standard reagents on the bench, and wanted to be sure we were getting useful data. I think we will also need to do some with the new Echo reagents.