meaning of pilot tube

[johnyang]

hi ,every one

english is not my mother language ,can anyone tell me what is the meaning of pilot tube ? is it the test tube for temporatory test before phlebotomy?

thanks in advance

john

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

Not quite. It is a tube of blood taken at the same time as the donation, which allows tests to be performed on the donor's blood without actually sampling from the unit of blood. This minimises the chance of contamination of the unit of blood itself, as it remains entire, without samples being taken from the unit itself, and risking bacterial contamination during sampling.

Having said that, for cross-matching purposes, it is necessary to take samples from the line of the unit, but this is always sealed in some way, such as heat sealing.

[johnyang]

thank you ,Malcolm

would you tell me what test do using this pilot tube. in my country ,we take only one test tube and test abo, rh ,HBsAg,anti-hiv,anti-hcv ,tp using this tube.

john

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

Hi John,

That is exactly the kind of testing we do with the blood in the tube.

Malcolm

[johnyang]

thank you ,Malcolm

in the isbt 128 specification ,flag 06 for pilot tube labeling,flag 07 for test tube labeling, what is the difference between these two ?

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

No idea I'm afraid. SOmeone else will have to answer that one! Sorry.