For manual gel qc, for aabb accreditation is it necessary to check to ten minute countdown on the gel centrifuge with another certified timer to ensure ten minutes is accuarate or is that built into the gel system centrifuge.

Thanks

We treat our gel centrifuges exactly like our other centrifuges for quality control.

AABB recommends that the timers be checked quarterly. Tech Manual 16th edition p.37

For manual gel qc, for aabb accreditation is it necessary to check to ten minute countdown on the gel centrifuge with another certified timer to ensure ten minutes is accuarate or is that built into the gel system centrifuge.

Thanks

Hi there,

It may be that your technician from the company who performs the maintenance should do this (and check the revolutions per minute) with a certified timer (and, in the case of the revolutions, some kind of laser pulsing - also certified). If they so do, they should leave you with an "as found, as left" certificate and a copy of the certificate stating that their own equipment has been certified, when it was certified, how it was certified and against what it was certified. If so, you may not need to do this yourself.

I hope so for your sake, as it is a pain to have to do it yourself (particularly as the timing is critical, but is not critical to the nanosecond!).

The MTS centrifuge manual lists it as a daily check. The last updated centrifuge manual (October 2008) lists the details. Ortho has a QC template for the daily checks required by the manufacturer.

The MTS centrifuge manual lists it as a daily check. The last updated centrifuge manual (October 2008) lists the details. Ortho has a QC template for the daily checks required by the manufacturer.

I take this to mean that you must check the timer to see that the display begins at 10:00 minutes, counts down and blanks at 0:00 not that you must check it against a certified timer daily. We actually check all of our centrifuge timers against a certified timer monthly.

Here is one out of left field.

We have recently seen sporadic gel blood grouping QC failures that on investigation were due to the gel centrifuge temperature. A centrifuge was inplicated that passed timer and RPM QC but obviously had a motor fault that caused the temp to go up by about 4oC every time the unit was used. It would pass QC first thing in the morning and then fail both ABO weak cell grouping and plasma (reverse) grouping in the afternoon.

Mechanical QC did not detect the fault but QC with Aweak B weak cells and weak plasma grouping did.

Problem solved by centrifuge replacement.

Here is one out of left field.

We have recently seen sporadic gel blood grouping QC failures that on investigation were due to the gel centrifuge temperature. A centrifuge was inplicated that passed timer and RPM QC but obviously had a motor fault that caused the temp to go up by about 4oC every time the unit was used. It would pass QC first thing in the morning and then fail both ABO weak cell grouping and plasma (reverse) grouping in the afternoon.

Mechanical QC did not detect the fault but QC with Aweak B weak cells and weak plasma grouping did.

Problem solved by centrifuge replacement.

TimOz is completely correct in saying that such controls are highly important. I think that a lot of people, especially Quality people who have not worked in a Blood Bank, put too much reliance on a mechanical QC, leading to a false sense of security.

That having been said, why replace the centrifuge? Why not just send the thing away and get it repaired?

I hate to be cynical, but have you not got some connections with a company (DiaMed) that sells these centrifuges TimOz? I may well be wrong (I often am), in which case I apologise profusely in advance.

:confused::confused:

No connections with DiaMed at all Malcolm, so apologies accepted. They see us as a competitor so they charge me as much as possible. And just to clarify, it was not a centrifuge in my lab but in another Australian laboratory. The centrifuge was replaced as it was a very very early model and was superceded.

And I must also say I have no problem with DiaMed centrifuges, they are reliable and I use them and like them. This one was just past it's use by date and only good QC showed it had a major fault.

No connections with DiaMed at all Malcolm, so apologies accepted. They see us as a competitor so they charge me as much as possible. And just to clarify, it was not a centrifuge in my lab but in another Australian laboratory. The centrifuge was replaced as it was a very very early model and was superceded.

And I must also say I have no problem with DiaMed centrifuges, they are reliable and I use them and like them. This one was just past it's use by date and only good QC showed it had a major fault.

Thanks for the clarification concerning the age of the centrifuge TimOZ, and, once again, I apologise for getting the wrong end of the stick with regards to your connections.

:redface::redface: