What are other Blood banks doing about Complement check cell being unavailable. Are you not testing for complement or are you using a home made control?

Luckily we have not been affected by this yet.  I just figured I'd use the expired cells until the new lot is shipped as long as qc is ok.  We don't do much complement testing so I could make a vial last for several more weeks.  Can you purchase a vial from another vendor?

Liverpool blood transfusion service (England) will ship to Scotland, maybe they would ship chilled to the US?

Probably not Auntie-D. Their products are CE-marked, but not necessarily FDA approved. I'll check with Malcolm James (Head of Reagents).

_{Here in the US, we just started doing compliment QC, suing a positive proficiency sample for a positive control.  We do not bother with any kind of check cell, though.}

 

_Scott

As per CAP requirement we do use complement control check cells all negative results with anti-c3b,c3d

Immucor says they have fixed their process and should begin shipping again soon. Hemobioscience via Ortho Clinical provides an alternate vendor . . . or you can always make your own.

Using a proficiency sample is a bit chancy at inspection time . . . expiration date, validation studies . . ., as is using the outdated cells (you would need your Medical Director's approval via your process in your quality plan). I would cite you and you could duke it out with your accrediting agency.

Edited January 21, 201411 yr by David Saikin

We don't perform many of these and, according to the latest update from the manufacturer, the cells I have should still be in date when they start shipping.  However, I had decided that if we did not have in date complement control cells, we would send the tests to our reference lab.  They have more resources than I do.

I ordered a vial of the Hemobioscience product to valid the product while my Immucor product was still in date, with the plan to order more if needed. However, Immucor will ship new product before my current product outdates, so we are good to go.

If mine expire prior to receiving the new cells, we would not test for complement, or maybe even send to our reference lab.

My latest word was that we would get an update (not necessarily a shipment) the week of Feb 3rd which is when our current lot expires so we ordered the Hemobioscience ones from Ortho.  

Dear all

I am probably being a bit thick here, but do I understand tht you are all taking negative Coombs tests (both DAT and antibody screens/panels??) and then adding complement control cells to make sure that the Coombs test has worked properly?  Does that mean that you do everything in duplicate - once so you can add IgG-coated cells to the negatives and once so that you can addComplement coated cells to the negatives?

Anna

Dear all

I am probably being a bit thick here, but do I understand tht you are all taking negative Coombs tests (both DAT and antibody screens/panels??) and then adding complement control cells to make sure that the Coombs test has worked properly?  Does that mean that you do everything in duplicate - once so you can add IgG-coated cells to the negatives and once so that you can addComplement coated cells to the negatives?

Anna

Yes, that's what we are doing. If we use poly - 1 tube is checked with IgG coated cells and 1 tube is checked with C3 coated cells. If we use anti-IgG and anti-C3, we used IgG coated cells to check the anti-IgG tube and C3 coated cells to check the anti-C3 tube. . . regulatory compliance.

AMcCord,

We only use complement control cells as check cells for anti-C3b,C3d. We do not use them with panels/antibody screens where the Coombs reagent is polyspecifc AHG or anti-IgG.

AMcCord,

We only use complement control cells as check cells for anti-C3b,C3d. We do not use them with panels/antibody screens where the Coombs reagent is polyspecifc AHG or anti-IgG.

 

I should have been more clear with my answer. I knew what I was thinking about, but you all can't know what I was thinking about .

 

The C3 coated cells are used only to check the anti-C3 activity of our polyspecific AHG and anti-C3 reagents when performing a DAT. They are not used for antibody screens/panels/crossmatches, etc.

I should have been more clear with my answer. I knew what I was thinking about, but you all can't know what I was thinking about .

 

The C3 coated cells are used only to check the anti-C3 activity of our polyspecific AHG and anti-C3 reagents when performing a DAT. They are not used for antibody screens/panels/crossmatches, etc.

I know maybe my question is a little easy, but why not use to check screens/panels/crossmatches?

Or it is becasuse we have check it on DAT, but it is not parallel.

Any response will be grateful.

Most of us use anti-IgG for our indirect AHG tests (screens, panels, crossmatches) so we use IgG coated RBCs for check cells in tube testing.

 

We use an anti-complement reagent only for DATs so we QC the reagent once daily by testing with the complement coated cells and we also use the complement coated cells as check cells with each complement DAT. 

 

We don't use polyspecific AHG anymore.  All adult DATs get IgG and complement DATs with the appropriate check cells.  We use gel or IgG tube for everything else.  We use EDTA specimens so complement-only reactions wouldn't be expected to be detected in our indirect AHG tests anyway.

We aren't doing the complement DATs since we ran out of the complement control cells.  I was told that our reagent was to be shipped on 2-3, never got it, called today and it was delayed again.

David

Could you please share your dat procedure using g

Gel cards?