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X-Ray Irradiators


kethaa

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Has anyone heard of the X-ray irradiators that can replace the Cesium sourced irradiators?  Is anyone using it and how did you acquire it?  I'm considering it for our lab and wanted to know the census from other Blood Bankers.

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Best Theratronics makes one - the Raycell.  We have used one for many years now.  They are expensive and require dosimetry checks twice a year and the service contracts are costly, but parts would be very expensive. 

You do not need key security and fingerprints and photos of everyone or a locked (secured) room for one.

That said - once it is set up correctly - FOLLOW ALL the recommendations for water temp and pressures and filter your water source too - it works quite well and has one service/maintenance visit a year.

See www.theratronics.ca

1-866-792-8598 - company is in Canada.

 

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  1. I worked at a blood center for years and used the Raycell Mk2 (the 3.5L model, the larger model that can do up to 6 RBCs at once). It was a pain to install and maintain the water source to cool the system. During the colder months (in the Northeast US), the water source had to be bypassed because it was too cold. We had to keep tweaking the pump and the filter system until we found one that could handle our municipal water--amazing how much sediment is in it!
  2. The Mk2 was down a LOT, IMHO. It was not like Best Theratronics Cesium irradiator, which was almost NEVER down, but which nevertheless had to be replaced (a) because it could only do 1 RBC at a time, and (b) because of the onus of all the security and NRC regulations. Because it was down so much, and the blood center had to maintain a supply of irradiated blood/platelet products, we had to ask a local hospital to irradiate for us, sometimes for several days at a time.
  3. Having said that, I did hear that a nearby hospital was using the Mk2 2.0L model, the smaller one that can do up to 4 RBCs at once, and it was almost never down...
  4. You HAVE to consider that the X-ray tubes have to be replaced every 7 years or so, at a considerable expense.
  5. Best Theratronics is a Canadian company. Not that I have anything against our neighbor to the north, but the equipment was more than once held up by customs, and PM or repair was delayed, sometimes by several days.
  6. I am now at a hospital transfusion service (the one that I used to send the blood center's irradiation to during down-time!), and back to using the Cs-137 GammaCell 1000 irradiator. Because of all the security/NRC compliance issues, I would love to switch to an X-ray irradiator. In my research, I found the Rad Source RS-3400 quite appealing. The sales person at the company said that all PM & repairs--including the X-ray source replacement, are covered by the maintenance contract (15k/year). And this is an American company, so no customs delays!
  7. Carrie M., what has your experience been since you switched a year ago? Are you happy that you changed from the Raycell? Again, I would love to go away from the Cs irradiator, and I'd love to hear the comparison/contrast between the Raycell & the RS-3400 from someone who has experience with both.
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We use the rad source x-ray irradiator as well. Allows you to irradiate 6 products at the same time. It takes 280 seconds to irradiate. 

Even though you have to periodically replace the cathode ray tube, that 280 seconds never changes (unlike cesium based irradiators). 

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We've been extremely happy with the Rad Source.  Service and extended downtimes on the Raycell were an issue since parts had to make it through Customs from Canada.  Rad Source offers 24/7 phone support, if needed.  We have had minimal problems.  They are based in Georgia, and respond quickly if there is a issue.  There is also a syringe adapter for neo aliquots.  

I don't know anything about disposal of a cesium device, but Rad Source did take care of of Raycell.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We have one of each.  The Rad Source is much more reliable.  Also, it has it's own water supply which is recycled, so you don't need a water hook up, and it requires only a 220 power connection.  Another plus is that it can irradiate 60 mL syringes.  We're a pediatric hospital, so that is important for us.

The company has been very responsive to the few issues that have come up.  

Having said that, no x-ray irradiator is as reliable as a cesium irradiator.  They have a lot more working parts, so there is a lot more that can go wrong with them.  Even though we have two x-ray irradiators, we have had them both down at one time.

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We sent two of our Clinical Engineers to the training.  It is supposed to help with initial troubleshooting and basic tweaks.  Can also help Rad Source determine the source of the problem and parts that should be brought. The Rad Sure engineer performs our annual PM.  Dosimetry is incredibly easy...stick the canister they send in and run a cycle.  At the risk of jinxing myself...we went live last April, and haven't had a downtime.  It will also do 35mL syringes (in addition to the 60mL).

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On 6/12/2017 at 9:22 AM, Marianne said:

Baby Banker- do you have an on-site BioMed person that took the repair training offered by RadSource or do you have the vendor perform all repairs?  Is there a particular or common source of downtime?

The Blood Bank Manager and someone from Biomed have trained to be able to do some repairs.  There is not a recurring cause of downtime.

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  • 1 year later...

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