Yes, the shielding appears to have solved the daily connectivity error problem. We have only had one in the month since the shields were applied.

We are seeing a lot of positives (all screening cells positive) on our Echo, that when done by alternative method are negative. I'm also thinking about taking the ID panels off of our standing order as 90% of the time we land up doing a back up method due to the cost.

We are seeing a lot of positives (all screening cells positive) on our Echo, that when done by alternative method are negative. I'm also thinking about taking the ID panels off of our standing order as 90% of the time we land up doing a back up method due to the cost.

We have had some of those reactions too. We discovered that some of those patients have weak positive DAT's. We take them to the bench and do a DAT and a cold screen. Some patients with strong cold autoantibodies cause a complement reaction with the indicator cells. If either of the above are positive, we do a manual screen and result that. The Echo isn't perfect but we recently looked at a Tango (as we were considering switching too) and found that the Cons outweighed the Pros. It can't run multiple types of tests at the same time and is slower. It has carry-over of specimen issues and is bigger. You can't access the instrument internally to trouble-shoot and there are no manufacturered QC reagents. (?) Just sayin'!

We have had some of those reactions too. We discovered that some of those patients have weak positive DAT's. We take them to the bench and do a DAT and a cold screen. Some patients with strong cold autoantibodies cause a complement reaction with the indicator cells. If either of the above are positive, we do a manual screen and result that. The Echo isn't perfect but we recently looked at a Tango (as we were considering switching too) and found that the Cons outweighed the Pros. It can't run multiple types of tests at the same time and is slower. It has carry-over of specimen issues and is bigger. You can't access the instrument internally to trouble-shoot and there are no manufacturered QC reagents. (?) Just sayin'!

We have the Tango, and have not seen the problems that you describe above. We use it for all tests, and run different specimens/units and tests all day long. It's only slower when you try to run 1 sample at a time, but this would be the same for any analyzer that only has one centrifuge on board. And there is no carry over issue; the manufacturer has resolved that and I validated that very well to prove there is no carryover. You can absolutely troubleshoot the instrument, although service has to be called in a few circumstances. And they have manufactured QC reagents for antibody screen, not blood type yet (coming soon though). You are correct on the size; it is larger than the Echo or Provue. If space is a concern, the Tango might not be the best option. But I have had it for over a year and am still very pleased with it, and so happy I don't see all of those false positives from other analyzers.

Hi Mary,

We are also in the process of automating our blood bank. I too am interested in the side by side study evaluation of the 3 instruments. If you could please mail me the white papers at adil.elavia@jehangirhospital.com.Thanks in advance

We have the Tango, and have not seen the problems that you describe above. We use it for all tests, and run different specimens/units and tests all day long. It's only slower when you try to run 1 sample at a time, but this would be the same for any analyzer that only has one centrifuge on board. And there is no carry over issue; the manufacturer has resolved that and I validated that very well to prove there is no carryover. You can absolutely troubleshoot the instrument, although service has to be called in a few circumstances. And they have manufactured QC reagents for antibody screen, not blood type yet (coming soon though). You are correct on the size; it is larger than the Echo or Provue. If space is a concern, the Tango might not be the best option. But I have had it for over a year and am still very pleased with it, and so happy I don't see all of those false positives from other analyzers.

What we are seeing isn't so much "false positives" as it is weakly positive DAT's and strong cold antibodies. We think finding these is useful. We have seen some of the weak positive DAT's become strongly positive DAT's (escpecially in our oncology patients). If the patient has the strong cold antibody, we then know to use warm techniques, if necessary. Rarely, do we have a patient that there is no explanation. These tend to be the oncology patients and maybe it is some of the medications that they are receiving. What I like about the Echo is that we can run T/S's, Weak D's, and antibody id's all at the same time. We also run crossmatches on the Echo. We have also detected weak Anti-Jka's, Anti-Jkb's and Anti-E's on the Echo that are negative when tested manually. We think those are is very significant! Must be the red cell stroma!

I am new to Galileo.

I am facing error of message "Plate failed criteria . Auto abandoned Please  check Interpretation Failures"  while processing IDCT sample in Galileo. It would be very much helpful to me if any of you tell me the cause of this erro.