I've always wondered WTF they were doing when they come up with that process?
I am not familiar with this process, can you eli5 what you're talking about?
this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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Skip to the second section if you are a Medical Laboratory Scientist. I don't know your background and don't want to assume and insult your intelligence. There are more blood Antigens and Antibodies than a person's ABO blood type. To give a person blood, we (Medical Laboratory Scientists) must test the patient's blood to determine their ABO and Rh (O Positive, A Negative etc) and screen for unexpected antibodies. If they have unexpected antibodies, we do additional testing to identify the antibody. Lastly, we have to test that THIS unit of blood is safe for THIS patient. The organization that collected the blood (American Red Cross, Vitalant, etc) tested it to ensure it is safe for transfusion (negative for bacteria and viruses) but not every unit is safe for every patient. Blood Bank is the department responsible for all of this testing.
Anti-Sda is an antibody that gives reactions that are all over the place. This makes it difficult to identify any other antibodies present. Sda antigen is present in urine and textbooks say to use male urine (free of other interfering substances, increased likelihood of being Sda antigen positive, increased antigen concentration compared to female, I don't know). Adding Sda positive urine to the patient plasma prior to testing will neutralize the Sda antibody. The antibody binds to the urine antigen (like an adsorption) allowing you to get reactions without interference. Now you can identify any other antibodies and confirm the presence of anti-Sda.
Thanks, I am not a medlab scientist, I should have made that clear. I gleaned that this was the general meaning from the meme, but was curious about the actual process since I donate blood and just the general wackiness of throwing in some pee (for science)
Thanks for the information, I was able to follow that well enough.
I have no curious if there's a specific range of pee that can be used for this anti-SDA. Neutralization, if you just use whatever p is on hand, the water content or variability in the urine from person to person must make it difference in the testing, right?
Labs will actually request their male employees to provide the urine 🤣🫣. No testing or quality control to confirm the presence of Sda in the urine (which is weird and sketchy). Typically, the sample is divided into vials and frozen. When the vials get too old someone will go find another male employee to provide a sample. In my 16 years of being a MLS, I have never had to do this (thankfully). I did work for a supervisor who asked male employees for urine (even though we have never needed it).
It is one of those things MLS learn in school and have to know to pass our certification exam. 98% of us will never use it again. Pigeon egg whites is another WTF blood bank "reagent".
Haha amazing, thank you so much for the extra insight.
So definitely back in the day some MLS was like "guys. You're not going to believe it. I peed in this blood, you know for science, then checked it out. No more complicated reactions-done!
You're welcome!"
How many egg whites do you have to try before you get to pigeons?