Does anyone perform scheduled QC for washed or deglyced RBC's? If so, please let us know what you are doing.

Back before our last cell washer kicked the bucket, we did a protein dipstick and used a hemoglobin colorimeter scale to do our deglyced and washed QC. We are now in the market for a new machine. Any recommendations?

BC

Thanks Bob.

We are using some pretty old 2991's. We have a few and they are still holding up. As for a new machine, sorry no suggestions.

For "QC" we use the Haemonetics Color Comparator. Our AABB Assessment has resulted in a request for more formal QC of these products.

http://www.bloodbanktalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=218

Same colorimeter we use. I bet they sold/gave away thousands of those things. Our platelet apheresis nurses use one on all our SDP components. We also have an analyzer in our chemistry department (I still need my GPS to find the place) that measures plasma free hemoglobin.

BC

By the way- yank the back off one of those 2991s and look at the "solid state electronics" used to run the thing ;-) Reminds me of the old 3-story high computer I ran when I was in engineering school back in the 1960s.

BC

I've always thought this was something we made up to make the inspectors happier.........but here you go. Hct of both pre and post deglyced unit...calculate % RBC recovery.......also "simulated transfusion" (don't laugh) of .5ml post sample mixed with 10ml of .9% saline. use comparator to determine "hgb".....and of course we use it during every wash/deglyc. procedure.

Bob,

We have two 2991s -- one that is the old "peg board" style, but we also have a new one where the "pegs" have been replaced by a digital display (the knobs are still there). We bought the new one just a few years ago, and everyone who was trained on the old one still prefers that.

We perform the following tests on the supernatant prior to release: Washed RBCs: supernatant for protein using a urinalysis dipstick; Deglyced RBCs: we also use the Haemonetics Color Comparator. We used to test the Refractive Index or Specific Gravity on the supernatant, but since our refractometer died we have had our reference lab do the "simulated" transfusion described in the Technical Manual.

We also perform %RBC recovery for each procedure quarterly.

Heather

To all of you who do dipsticks for protein. Do you have an SOP for that and do you run controls? Just wondering as I can anticipate the next question from the assessor. Did any of you "validate" the process to show that it consistently resulted in a protein below detectable levels? If so, did that not fly with the assessor?

Sshel55: Yes, we have an SOP and we run a positive and negative control on each day of use. We validated the use of the dipsticks. We did not use the dipstick when we validated the instruments because we weren't doing protein QC when the instruments were implemented.

P.S. We just implemented an Atago digital refractometer (the same one seen on the last page of the MarketLab catalog for Spring 2008 even though that's not where we bought it from). It is DELIGHTFUL and I would highly recommend it to anyone!!

Thanks for the reply, Heather. What is the protein content that you all consider acceptable in the final wash supernatant and how did you determine the lacceptable level?

I'll check out the refractometer. It might come in handy for protein levels for serial plasmapheresis donors.

Sherry Sheldon

We say that the "Negative" and "trace" values on the dipsticks are acceptable. I don't remember exactly what our rationale was, but I think those were the values that Production and QA thought that would qualify as "significantly reduced" or "minimal" residual protein.