Any one look at Grifols Erytra?

[cmontgomery]

Has anyone looked at Grifols Erytra?   We have looked at the Ortho Vision and Grifols Erytra.   We would need two of the Visions to take care of our work for Transfusion Services and Reference Lab work.  One Erytra would be our other choice, it has some good features.

Would like to hear from others who have looked at both.    Currently we have 3 Echos, manual gel and tube.

Thank you for your reviews.

[Mabel Adams]

We have looked at both pretty extensively.  I preferred the Erytra mainly because I think that their gel wouldn't pick up as many false positives as Ortho's.  There are more "bells and whistles" on the Vision so evaluate how they fit your needs. I am not ready to run gel titers so that is not a great value to me, especially because it would use up a lot of reagent cells when it runs, I think, 12 dilutions on every titer.  Maybe there will be a software fix later that will let you run fewer dilutions.  Grifols is still getting reagents released in the US so they don't have everything you might want yet.  Last I heard they have only a single 0.8% panel through approval.  If you will use the instrument for your high throughput testing and do follow up testing manually, that is fine.  If you want to put panels A,B,C and Ficin on the machine, you will have to wait a while for Grifols, although the Vision can do this (pay attention to onboard stability times).  Examine how the specimens and reagents are accessed in each machine (carousel vs. slide-in racks) and think if that will make any difference in your operation. It might be different for generalists who pop into BB to run something on nights than for a fully 24/7 staffed BB. Be sure to get the vendors to help you with site visits so you can see them in operation and talk to real users. We were also allowed to have a manual workstation for a week so we could run comparison gel testing in both manual systems. We found that helpful.

[cmontgomery]

Thank you Mabel for your comments.  I was able to see both at AABB last year and have both Grifols and Ortho gave presentations at our site.  It is hard to get staff to go visit other sites due to staffing and our location is at least 3-4 hours away from other sites.  We were fortunate that Grifols brought the instruments  to us and all fifteen of our staff had a chance to see it run and asks multitudes of questions.    It is good to hear others views on the instruments, after AABB I had my mind set on one instrument then through some research and speaking with staff, I have changed my mind.

[marvy1]

I think those who are in the market for automated blood bank analyzers also need to look at what Bio-Rad is coming out with. I think both their Gel and solid phase automation platforms should be compared to the other vendor products.

[tricore]

We have two hospitals using the Erytra. send me a pm and I will give you contacts. We are also using the Wadiana and the DG Reader.

[kirkaw]

I agree with Mabel's assessment. I am in the market to replace my Provue and my preference is the Erytra. The main downfall is that the Erytra is not a tabletop analyzer so space is a concern. Also, the capital expenditure is greater than for the Vision. I love that the Erytra is true random access. The Erytra's capacity is greater and the time to process is slightly faster. 

Although I was impressed with the Bio-Rad IH1000, that analyzer is HUGE and as far as I know, it's not FDA cleared yet. 

One of the reasons that I'm looking to switch vendors is that I feel that Ortho's customer service has deteriorated substantially over the past 2 years. Additionally, whereas Grifols manufacturers the Erytra and Wadiana, Ortho contracted Grifols to make the Provue (it's actually a Wadiana under a different name) and the Tecan to make the Vision.

[Brenda K Hutson]

We have had 2 ProVue's but are now in the process of purchasing the Erytra.  Just liked the features and equipment better (Vision was also pretty loud). We will only be purchasing 1 Erytra, but will also get the Manual Workstation and DG Reader which will also be interfaced with our computer system.  Barring any "long" downtimes by the Erytra, we can handle our workload with 1.    I will be going to training in Sept. and that is when the machine will be brought in "and the fun will begin....."

Brenda Hutson, MT(ASCP)SBB