26 October 2020 (Monday) - BTLP-TACT Excercise

It has been a couple of weeks since I last did a BTLP-TACT exercise. I thought I’d better do one. 

The software presented me with two cases: 

65853 – a fifty-one-year-old woman in ITU requiring two units of blood within the next two hours

Her ABO blood group was indeterminate; her Rh(D group was negative. Her antibody screen was positive in cells 1 and 3.
I performed antibody panels.
The IAT panel was positive in cells 1,3,4,6,8 and 10 which corresponded with anti-s but couldn’t rule out anti-Cw
The enzyme panel was negative
I selected the only unit of s-negative O Rh(D) negative there was, and in reality would be on to the NBS right away 

85689 – a thirty-five-year-old woman attending the ante-natal clinc requiring blood group & antibody screening.
She was B Rh(D) Positive with a negative antibody screen. 

I was expecting the red light. I was wondering what I should have done differently, but I got the green light. I was pleased with that.

24 October 2020 (Saturday) - She Said What !!!!

Here’s an interesting question that appeared on the Facebook “The Lab Break Room” group. Not interesting for the question, but for some of the (quite frankly) utterly wrong replies the question received. Some people were claiming a blood count sample is good after having been stored for up to a week.

I’m reminded of a chap I once interviewed who claimed experience of every blood-testing machine known to science, but on questioning, his experience was that he’d seen the machines whilst being interviewed.

Facebook groups (and all on-line forums) are all very well all the time you bear in mind you have pretty much no idea just how little the other person knows…

22 October 2020 (Thursday) - Grey Platelets

The American Society of Hematology sent one of their updates today. Whilst I don’t wish to sound ungrateful, much of their stuff is far too clinical for me, and much does seem to worry about money. But here’s an interesting article on grey platelet syndrome.

“In summary, our data show that, in addition to the well-described platelet defects in GPS, there are immune defects. The abnormal immune cells may be the drivers of systemic abnormalities such as autoimmune disease”.