11 hours ago, exlimey said:

I find it interesting that various users have been told/advised to use a pipette in a manner that may compromise the accuracy of the volume delivered. I'm sure the pipette instructions indicate to use vertically.

Thankfully, the serological assays that are used by the Transfusion Medicine field have a wide range of tolerance. The "1-drop to 1-drop" concept is horrifying to many other pathology disciplines.

I have never seen the pipette used any other way than vertical. I was just looking for printed materials for this air  gap method, if any exist, so I can have something official for my reference. Thank you 🙏 

12 hours ago, diplomatic_scarf said:

I was just looking for printed materials for this air  gap method, if any exist, so I can have something official for my reference. Thank you 🙏 

From reading the previous comments, both old and new, it appears that the manufacturer (Ortho) does not specifically require the bubble and therefore nothing is in writing (the Directions for Use). You may be out of luck trying to find something to reference.

4 hours ago, exlimey said:

From reading the previous comments, both old and new, it appears that the manufacturer (Ortho) does not specifically require the bubble and therefore nothing is in writing (the Directions for Use). You may be out of luck trying to find something to reference.

On a previous new post, someone said the Ortho Representative told him they needed to do the air gap method. If Ortho is requiring the method, it would be nice to have some printed material about it. If there is none, it’s no big deal, I think I’ll live. 

Edited March 24, 20223 yr by diplomatic_scarf

A few of our newer employees state that their previous employers had required this, but I had never heard of this.  We were trained by our ortho rep back in 2005 or so to pipette straight up and down for both reagent cells and plasma.  My question is since many labs are automated for blood bank now, how do the analyzers pipette the samples.  Is there an air gap in the testing with the Provue or the Vision? 

On 3/17/2022 at 5:32 AM, knelson said:

We were told by the Ortho rep that trained our staff that you need to have an air gap between the patient plasma/reagent rbcs and the liquid on top of the gel in the column for the same reason described in Arno's post.  Years ago we had a tech that always got weaker reactions with daily QC and we finally figured out that after she pipetted the rbcs and patient plasma into the gel columns, she would tap the card until the plasma/rbcs mixture touched the liquid layer in the column.  Her reactions were always 1-2 grades weaker than everyone else.  Once she stopped doing that, she got much stronger reactions.  We use a Biohit pipettor and hold the pipettor at a slight angle and pipette towards the side of the well.  This works well.  Should the rbc/plasma mixture touch the liquid layer in the well, we discard that well and repipette using a new well.

Are you using the Biohit pipette in a manner that may compromise the accuracy of the volume delivered? Does the pipette instructions indicate that it is okay to use at a slight angle?

 

As Elinf has mentioned, how do you explain automated gel card readers? Do they use the air gap method? 
 

Thank you.