Tony R Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 We have been using the Echo for two years and recently we have noticed that we are encountering a lot of equivocal reactions. This past week-end we ran ten consecutive T&S and we got 4 of them come out as "NO INT" and one false positive reaction. (negative panel and negative with tube testing Peg & Lis). Obviously this is not acceptable. My question is, "Is this unique to our instrument or are others experiencing the same problems.Thanks for your input.Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L106 Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Hi Tony. Yes, we've been seeing similar trashy problems lately. Our Echo has been maintained properly, we've switched Screening Cell Strips, etc. I am anxious to get our next lot # of Indicator Cells in a couple days and see if that makes a difference.Donna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMcCord Posted July 16, 2011 Share Posted July 16, 2011 Same for us. I was beginning to wonder if we had lines with fungus in them, in spite of proper decontamination. Have you reported the problem? Any solutions offered?I think I'll give them a call Tuesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcoyle Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 We use the Galileos and at times have experienced this. Did you contact Immucor to let them know of this issue? Contacting them can help them determine if it is an antibody strip issue, or perhaps it is due to expiring indicator cells. If you do contact immucor, they will want to have the lot numbers of everything and may even ask for a packet of strips to test. They should be able to help trouble shoot you through this...and if other places are having the same problem, it would be good for them to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OxyApos Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 3 yrs Echo user and love it...BUT when these happen in clusters, sometimes its the lot # of strips, which is hard to ascertain if you only have 1 lot# in stock. Also, I have had L&D patients and patients with septicemia give these reactions due to their condition. The septicemia patients reactions went away after their white count dropped. I run a ready ID just to make sure a weak Kell or E isn't playing chicken. If the panel is all neg I go with that and call the screen negative. Enter a comment in our computer for future screens to be looked at closer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irish Blood Doc Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 Immucor is having personnel turnover issues. The inventor of Capture and original management are all retired. The main production manager for red cells, who is responsible for dried RBC plates and Indicator Cells is retiring this month. The new replacement personnel are on a learning curve and new senior management has no experience with solid phase or serology. I am afraid that these issues may continue. Immucor is pretty good about reagent replacements, but I know my lab will be spending more time resolving these issues. I hope the new Immucor personnel come up to speed quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwint Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 What lot number of Ready Screen strips are you using? We had the same problem, did all the troubleshooting we could think of, and ended up solving the problem with a new lot of strips. Our defective lot was R162. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L106 Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 I believe we were using Ready Screen Lot # R149 when we were having an unusual number of this problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMcCord Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 We were using R152 when our problems were happening. The indicator lot was 679. We are now using R153 with indicators 685 and so far, so good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMcCord Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Immucor is having personnel turnover issues. . . . .Good to know. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPruden Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 We were seeing issues a while ago but it turned out to be the camara settings/calibration. I love the dial-in customer service, they can see all of the logs on your instrument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irish Blood Doc Posted August 20, 2011 Share Posted August 20, 2011 That is also a concern. As the tungsten bulb deposits graphite on the inner glass surface with aging, the light emission changes and we start seeing more discrepant results. When the Immucor service person arrives, they turn the gain up on the lamp and we are OK for a while. We are getting used to dealing with this problem. As mentioned in the previous threads, there is also lot-to-lot variability in reagents and controls. The bulb adjustment and reagent variability are monitored by carefully looking at our NTD and Equiv. incidence. When we see adverse trends, we are on the phone to Immucor. What we are a little nervous about is the additive affect of the two problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary** Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 It doesn't sound like it is worth it to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMcCord Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Our Echo just got it's PM yesterday. We've been getting quite a few NTD and NO INTRP results within the last 3-4 weeks and our lamp was tweaked about 8 weeks ago. I discussed it with our service tech. He adjusted the Y-belt on the robot arm which will make the shake a little less vigorous. He told me that for some reason that belt tightens up with age and that loosening the tension on it should help. I guess I'll know if that worked in a few weeks. Stay tuned! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irish Blood Doc Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 The loosened belt and less vigorous shake should increase the sensitivity of the hemagglutination based reactions, especially the reverse ABO group. Our belt actually loosened with use and had to be tightened to completely resuspend negative reactions - we were getting too many false positives. Hope the loosened belt helps resolve some of your NTD's and NO INTERP's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Dear Immucor automation users, I am planning on acquiring the Neo, what is your opinion?Bio-Rad has also presented a tender and we are currently using the maual BioRad, is it smart to move to solid phase?And what is your current manual backup, solid phase or gel?Thank you so much!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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