Blood Irradiator

[Red Blood Cells]

Does your facility irradiate their own blood? What kind of irradiator do they use? Have you had any problems or concerns? Are there special regulations attached to using an irradiator?

[SMILLER]

We have a cancer treatment center here, so we do use the accelarator there, at least M-F when they are open.  There are quite a number of regs since you are modifying a product.  In the US, look to AABB and FDA standards.  There will have to be P&Ps for your blood bank and whatever department does the irradiation.

Scott

[DPruden]

There are a ton of regulations surrounding radioactive sources, homeland security, state regs, NRC, basically a huge pain in the tuckus, and they are thousands of pounds and usually require reinforced floors!  I have used the linear accelerators in Radiation Oncology at a previous job and that worked really well, but we would occasionally run into "traffic jams" with patient treatment schedules.  X-ray irradiators don't require all of the regulatory ridiculousness, but I have heard (but haven't actually used them) that if you are doing large volumes of irradiating, then you should probably have 2 because the x-ray tubes must be replaced after so many cycles and that can take a week or more.  Also, many of the x-ray irradiators need to be plumbed with a water supply.  Best Theratronics from Canada and JL Shepherd are the 2 companies that I know of for the standard irradiators.  There is a really nice cost comparison paper from Wisconsin that you could read at https://www.lafollette.wisc.edu/images/publications/cba/2013-irradiators.pdf

[Carrie Easley]

We use the Rad Source RS 3400 X-Ray irradiator.  We really haven't had any issues with it, and have been extremely happy w/ the Atlanta-based service.  It has a syringe adaptor for neonatal aliquots.  We used to have a Raycell, but it took much longer for service as all parts had to clear Customs.  Irradiating products does guarantee a visit f/ the FDA every two years. The devices are pretty expensive.  We are ~2 hours f/ our blood supplier w/ large oncology & neonatal service, so we felt that it was necessary.  Your LIS will need to be able to make new product labels.