Blood Transfusions and Blood Product Transfusions

This service provides immunohematology laboratory services 24/7/365. Blood typing and screening for blood group antibodies is performed using two ultra-sensitive, state-of-the-art automated solid phase immunohematologic analyzers.

For patients requiring transfusions of red blood cells, but who have allergies to plasma, the Transfusion Service removes plasma by saline washing using automated cell washing centrifuges.

For patients with a requirement for red blood cells of a rare type, typically for multi-transfused patients with sickle cell disease, the Service maintains an inventory of red blood cells of rare types frozen at -80C. This inventory of frozen red cells is selected to match the requirements of patients who require lifelong transfusions of red cells of rare types. The frozen red cells, which are viable for more than 10 years, are obtained prospectively from the American Rare Donor File.

The department provides in-hospital laboratory services for antibody identification, immunohematologic studies for the diagnosis of autoimmune hemolytic anemia, and antibody titers for women whose pregnancy is at risk for hemolytic disease of the fetus/newborn.

The laboratory performs serologic titers of anti-A1 and anti-A2 (Asub) for kidney transplant patients, increasing the number of cadaver kidneys available for transplantation.

The department partners with the American Red Cross Reference Laboratory in Baltimore, MD for provision of specialized immunohematologic testing, and with the National Molecular Laboratory in Philadelphia for molecular diagnostics.

Representatives from the Transfusion Service participate in the MedStar Work Group on Transfusion Services, supporting MedStar’s efforts to standardize laboratory services. In 2017, they performed 29,000 ABO/Rh typings, 20,000 antibody screens, and 20,000 crossmatches.

The department supports the training of Pathology residents and medical students in the subspecialty of Transfusion Medicine. During the prior 5 years, it has supported scientific journal publications in medical journals on the subjects of non-hemolytic passenger lymphocyte syndrome, the DEL phenotype, serologic weak D phenotype, Rh immunoprophylaxis, and blood group genotyping.

The department is registered with the US Food and Drug Administration and accredited by the AABB (formerly, American Association of Blood Banks) and the College of American Pathologists.

Oversight of regulatory and accreditation requirements is provided by the Blood Utilization Review Committee, composed of representatives from Anesthesia, Surgery, Transplantation, Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Administration.

Director

Phone: 202-444-88520

Transfusion Service Laboratory

Phone: 202-444-3521

Supervisors

Phone: 202-444-3524

Manager

Phone: 202-444-3520