I'm looking for input on calibration of centrifuges for Transfusion Service. We have been performing calibrations to determine proper spin times for each of our centrifuges and cell washers annually. I just purchased a new cell washer and the manufacturer recomends using 20 sec. They don't say anything about calibrating to the proper spin time to achieve a 1+ reaction. I looked in AABB but did not find anything specific to this topic.

Any opinions out there?

The new 26th edition of AABB's Standards for Blood Banks and Transfusion Services addresses this on page 4, item # 3.5.1. It states that equipment "calibrations and/or adjustments shall be performed before use, after activities that may affect the calibration, and at prescribed intervals."

I interpret that to mean that calibration must be done for whatever phases you intend to use the centrifuge, and it should be done before the centrifuge is put in service and after repair (or relocating, etc.) And apparently you can dictate what you want to set as your "prescribed intervals" (ie: annually, every-other-year, every 5 years, or whatever.)

Does anyone have a different take on this?

If I may respond to my own question.......Yes it is in the AABB manual under method 7.5.....and yes it is still required to perform upon receipt, repairs and periodically. We chose to interpret periodically as at least annually if not more frequent. So off I go to calibrate my new cell washer. Then the joy of validation!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the help everyone!

Karen - Once a year is fine, if that is what you prefer. Do you find that the spin times ever changes when you do your annual calibration? If they never seem to change, you could probably change your procedure to once every two or three years, if you felt comfortable with that. (Unfortunately, it seems like our cell washers never go 2 or 3 years without something being repaired, which necessitates recalibration.)