lehooke

Has anyone had any problems with the the inside cover of the cell washer "chipping"? It looks as if the paint is chipping off and I'm wondering if it is due to the weekly bleach cycle. The cellwasher is only 3 years old. I don't remember ever having this problem with the older cellwashers, but of course, I sometimes don't remember what I had for dinner last night.

Has anyone had any problems with the the inside cover of the cell washer "chipping"? It looks as if the paint is chipping off and I'm wondering if it is due to the weekly bleach cycle. The cellwasher is only 3 years old. I don't remember ever having this problem with the older cellwashers, but of course, I sometimes don't remember what I had for dinner last night.

Hi Amy,
My first thought was, why did the overnight person give group A blood, rather than group AB? But, perhaps you do not carry group AB in your stock.
Between 1 and 2% of the random White and Black population are A2B, and of those, only 25% produce an anti-A1. An anti-A1 that is clinically significant (reacts at 37oC) is disappearingly rare, so I wouldn't worry about it, but why switch to group O?
The ABO antigens are not direct gene products, but are the result of the action of transferase enzymes that ARE direct gene products (give or take a bit of post-translational jiggery pokery!) and the A transferase and the B transferase compete with one another to put their own terminal sugar residues on to the Type 1 and Type 2 backbones, and it is not unusual for the A antigen to be weaker than the B (so that an A1 reacts more strongly with anti-A than does an A1B, and an A2 reacts more strongly with anti-A than does an A2B).
This patient is also an elderly oncology patient, and both age and his condition can affect the expression of ABO antigens.
I would switch back to group A for transfusion if I were you (or, better still, AB).

I have never qc'd panels and will be ending my career with that same statement, mostly, because at my current and final employer we don't perform antibody id's.  This discussion is not a new one and will continue to pop up with new inspectors and new interpretations of old rules.  Frankly, there is not anyway to realistically QC a panel and have confidence that the every antigen listed is detectable.  Frankly I am surprised at the number of folks responding that they do some form of panel QC.  In my ever so humble opinion you are providing nothing but smoke and mirrors to pacify some inspector.     I suppose that as long as you are successful at this it's worth the effort.

Exactly right, John. You and I totally agree on this issue. I guess my argument for inspectors would be...what else that I have fully validated should I not trust? I just validated our new microwave plasma thawer...should I then "thaw them the old way" once in a while? My feeling that if a manufacturer says they can do it, FDA approves it, and I validate it to prove that it can do it...at some point we have to trust that the new technology does indeed work and we can move on to more pressing issues...like patient care.