Hello to all...not a regular poster, but was wondering if those of you who have been in the trenches already validating your ECHOs would be willing to share any woulda/shoulda/coulda moments with us. We just finished training, have all the books, and we received some tips from our rep re: freezing samples for parallels, screen dumping, and recommendation against spiking samples with reagent antisera. Did any of you try this, or come across any specific things you "wish you had known beforehand" that may have sped up the process or made it more organized, etc?

Your validation plan could include the following:

1. You need to see what carry over you get (to check washing) - by running a high antibody titred sample (or a vial of IVIg anti-D), with subsequent samples being AB serum.

2. You could perform repeat testing on samples with known antibodies, to ensure detection is consistant.

3. Ensure consistancy of antibody detection with your previous technique

4. Check false positive rate.

5. Check how many Capture panels allow easy identification of antibodies without having to reflex by another technique (or require extended cells to identify- as this will impact on cost), compared to your previous method.

6. Question your reagent handling. If you are on the new SP2 software- this allows 600 ABO+ RhD tests. See thread on this site about 'Reagent Handling'