Findings support the feasibility of using microcapillary cytometry technology as the basis for a fully automated system that offers great accuracy, sensitivity, and quantitation
New data published in the journal Transfusion (Roback JD, Barclay S, Hillyer CD Transfusion 2004;44:187-196) shows that the Guava PCA and PCA-96 cell analysis systems can perform blood typing and compatibility testing with great accuracy and sensitivity in the research setting.
Scientists at the Emory University School of Medicine demonstrated that blood typing results obtained using either of the Guava PCA systems was of comparable or greater accuracy than that obtained by the currently used Ortho Clinical Diagnostics ID-Micro Typing system.
"Our findings support the feasibility of using Guava's microcapillary cytometry technology as the basis for a fully automated system that offers great accuracy, sensitivity, and quantitation for pre-transfusion blood testing in an easy-to-use benchtop format," said John Roback, lead author of the article and assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, Emory University School of Medicine.
The researchers tested blood samples from 749 hospitalised patients for ABO group and D type, and samples from a smaller group of 428 patients for rare blood incompatibilities (unexpected alloantibodies) using both Guava systems.
These results were compared with data from analysis of the same samples using the ID-Micro Typing system.
Discrepancies between the two methods were resolved using tube testing.
The accuracy of testing when using the Guava PCA systems was comparable to the ID-Micro Typing system for analysis of normal blood samples, and the Guava PCA systems performed better than the ID-Micro Typing system in detecting weak antibodies and mixed-field reactions.
"The majority of blood products used in transfusion medicine are cellular products," commented Peter Christey, vice president, partnerships and new markets at Guava Technologies. "The Guava PCA and PCA-96 are highly versatile, easy-to-use systems for conducting cell analyses.
"They offer the potential to perform on a single instrument a number of quality control (QC) and product characterisation assays in transfusion medicine such as ABO typing, leukocyte reduction QC, cell counting, bacterial detection, antibody screening and other applications.
"The data generated by the team at Emory University illustrate the capabilities of the Guava in a core blood banking application".
According to the American Association of Blood Banks, demand for blood in the United States averages 38,000 units of red blood cells daily.
In all cases, donated red blood cells must be carefully matched as to type and other immunological factors with the recipient patient prior to transfusion.
