Ortho Gel Diluent 2 vs. Diluent 2 PLUS

[Kathy]

For those of you who use the Ortho MTS Gel system, do you use both the Diluent 2 (for the IgG and polyspecific cards) and the Diluent 2 PLUS (for the ABO/Reverse cards) or do you use one of the diluents for all of the testing? If you use only one diluent, which one do you use? What kind of validation testing did you do to determine that the one diluent worked for all of the cards? I want to do the validation testing. If I do it so that we use Diluent 2 Plus for everything, do I need to test for DAT (positive and negative, in both IgG cards and polyspecific cards) and crossmatches (positive and negative)?

[David Saikin]

I used to use the 2+ for everything = validated with testing. Now I use Hemobioscience's Gel Cell Diluent (same as 2+). The 2+ diluent was to be used for samples not collected in EDTA to resolve any issues related to incomplete clotting of the specimen (as I understand it).

[Kathy]

David,

Since all of our specimens are collected in EDTA, wouldn't it be easier for us to only use Diluent 2? I would think that it would be easier to validate the ABO cards using Diluent 2 than to validate both the IgG and Polyspecific cards with positive (hard-to-find) DATs.

[David Saikin]

Yes it would.

[sblanchard]

We validated Diluent 2 for manual Gel ABO in 2005. Ran types in Dil 2+ and Dil 2 for validation purposes and then purchased just Dil 2. We have had the Provue since 2010 and now buy both because the instrument requires both. However, we did not change our process for manual testing even though we have both reagents now.