Cornelia, we are very interested in looking at the comparison for the echo, galileo, provue, and tango. Can you please send it to me also: shawntel.suiter@mcguire.af.mil or shawntel.c.suiter@us.army.mil Thanks.

hello

I am from Germany and here in the University of Erlangen they have made a direct comparison between Galileo and Tango optimo. If you want to have these datas I can give it to you

Please send me the comparison

ek01@aub.edu.lb

Thank you

Liz

Cornelia,

Please send me your comparison data.

Thanks,

mediaman369@aol.com

I would also like any comparison material on the 3 instruments. Mainly the Tango. We have Meditech Client Server.

Also the choice of back-up for the Tango.

Thanks

Alicia

anorris@georgetownhospitalsystem.org

Cornelia,

Please send me your comparison data.

Thanks,

rb-2626@hotmail.com

We are now looking at the Provue and Echo. I am behind the curve on information. Would you please share a brief explanation of which instrument you chose and if possible the pros and cons between the Provue and Echo? Any and all views are welcome.

Thanks

KGoldman

Hi KGolldman,

You mentioned you were looking at the Provue and the Echo. Can I ask why you are not looking at the Tango?

It's great to see discussion over the different instruments. I strongly believe there is not one instrument that fits everyones needs. However, I'm curious why the Tango is not being considered. The Tango has capacity to handle all donor retypes with room left over for other routine tests. If your lab receives more than 20 units at a time, this would be important. It also has 2 STAT functions, Emergency and ASAP and the Tango is the only instrument that has 7 days on-board storage of both liquid reagents and plates, therefore, it is always ready to go, which is handy for many reasons, especially the generalist. It has complete random and continuous access, super user friendly software, automated maintenance, and QC only needs to be run once per day. It is at least worth looking at to compare with the others.

My blood bank has implemented the Tango. For our workflow, the Tango would be the perfect instrument. It does essential all the type and screens that come into our blood bank, the unit confirmations, and eventually we will use it for antigen typing and antibody identifications. It also performs cord blood testing, but our facility still washes cord bloods before perform the testing. The Tango would not was the sample for us, so we chose to just keep those on the bench. It is a true stat interrupt instrument. You can load specimens onto the instrument at any time. You have the option to select Stat or ASAP/Expedite for your specimens to move them up in the lineup of testing. We have been pleased with the instrument.

We looked at the Echo/Galileo and Provue as well. We were skeptical about Immucor products because we had the ABS 2000 manufactured by Immucor and had a problems with the instrument but customer service and tech support was not very good at all. We had a hard time getting anyone to help us with our problems, which played a big role in us not wanting to get another Immucor instrument.

We used tube testing and implemented the gel first at our 3 blood banks (April 2008). The larger division went up on the ProVue shortly after switching to gel. Most of the techs are generalists and in their words..they love it. Many have gone directly to the lab director just to tell her how much they love it...they think it is the best thing that has happened in blood bank. At the same time we switch all our reagents to Ortho...they have been great....in both customer service and getting the gel/ProVue implemented.

We have processing our donor units on the Tango for antigen typings since they were approved last fall. It has been GREAT!! Imagine doing 12 units, complete Rh and Kell phenotype in approximately 28 minutes with NO tubes to label. It is wonderful. We now routinely phenotype 36 to 40 units about every other week to have units available, comes in real handy when looking for c (little c) negative units.

We are a long time gel user and validated a switch to the Echo. We found several alloantibodies weakly reactive in the gel and negative on the Echo. We stayed with the manual gel system. Thanks Mary

We converted from manual Gel to the Echo a few months ago. During validation, I had some concerns because we had a few (3) anti-E's that were weak on the Echo compared to the Gel. I sent specimens that I could to Immucor. It seems that at least one of these was IgM. While they were weaker reacting, they were still positive.

I talked to several Echo & Galileo & manual solid phase users, and they don't see increased delayed transfusion reactions, etc.

Since going live with the Echo, we had a patient who developed an anti-E, with 2 previously negative specimens. I still had the specimens, so repeated testing on both Echo and Gel and the previous specimens were negative by both methods. (We keep a few gel cards for testing selected cells for 'rule outs'.)

During validation and since, we have also had some antibodies, anti-E's and anti-C's that were detected by the Echo and not with Gel.

No one system will detect everything, everytime.

We love the Echo. Fast turn-around. Easy to use. Helpful Technical support.

We tried to consider the Tango, but got no replies from the company to our requests for information.

Does the Provue have continuous loading? I seem to remember that once you start a run you can't start another till it's finished. Not so with Echo/Galileo.

Or the Tango!!!

We also use the Echo. bbbirder is correct, no single system will detect all antibodies. I evaluated gel many years ago (before provue) and found examples that were detected in PEG but not by gel. In this go-round, the decision to use the Echo rather than Provue was economic. We are happy with the Echo. Our volume has increased to the point that I would have to add an extra FTE were it not for the Echo. My experience with the Immucor customer service is that they are responsive and available. I have no regrets with my choice of the Echo for our operation.

Immucor rep did not reply to our interst in their products.. ? Automation, WARM, etc....

Is there another brand like WARM out there, pls help

Thank you

Liz

Guess everyone can't have our Immucor rep, she is GREAT!

Liz, are you in the upper midwest?

My Immucor reps in the intermountain west are great. I miss them almost as much as I miss my old staff.

Thank you for the replies and question.

I work at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon, Lebanon of the Middle East. We are CAP, JCIA and MAGNET accredited. The local rep of Immucor said that Immucor was not interested in our market. I wish they would read this and disagree with the local rep. At the annual AABB exhibits they are always interested. . We have our PD in New York as well as locally, but its so much more convenient with local distributors and why do they rep Immucor if they are not allowed to sell.

So back to my first question: do you know of an elution kit similar to W.A.R.M.?

Thanks

Liz

Just to be clear, any antibodies eluted using WARM cannot be tested in the usual sense of an eluate. Its main use is to remove autoantibody from coated patient cells and enzyme treat them so they will be more effective when used for autoabsorption. Immucor makes an effective and easy elution kit called Elu-kit II. As far as I know no other supplier makes WARM (or something like Elu-kit II either). You can make your own WARM--I think the Technical Manual has instructions in the Methods section and I think they call it Z-Zap.

Thank you, yes that is my goal to finally id allo- Abs if any are present.

I have tried the Technical Manual procedure ZZap but the cells lysed. I shall give it one more go.

Thank you

Liz

hello

I am from Germany and here in the University of Erlangen they have made a direct comparison between Galileo and Tango optimo. If you want to have these datas I can give it to you

Hi Cornelia,

Would you please email me your comparison date for the blood bank analyzers, my email address is: mkroschel@kanabechospital.org

Thank you!!

Forget automation tube method rules ! Lol...

We use the Provue. It is very batch oriented. It works best if the testing is organized into batches. Not that you would have to wait to "batch" your testing just organizeour cards to make it easier to for the Provue to think. There is the fact that you have to wait until your incubation is done to add more specimens unless you STAT interrupt. Overall it is very easy to use. Pretty sturdy little machine. It also provides a digital pic of each component of your TYSC or TXM so you can have a digital recheck.

hello

I am from Germany and here in the University of Erlangen they have made a direct comparison between Galileo and Tango optimo. If you want to have these datas I can give it to you

Cornelia,

I would also like to see you results for the Galileo and Tango. I currently work on a Provue and would like to read more about the "competition". Please send it to me at: mewilde1@earthlink.net and mwilde@lakelandregional.org.

Thanks so much!

Margaret Wilde

Does anyone have an idea about the Diamed automation (same as Provue, I believe) and about the Autovue (beads alternative of Provue for Europe).

I would appreciate the pros and cons as our fiscal budget has been accepted and now is the moment of truth in the choice made.

Thank you very much.

Liz

Edited November 16, 200915 yr by Liz
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