From Heather DeVries: Greetings! We were inspected by CAP this week, and at one facility they questioned the validation of PPP. Our current procedure, written in 2001, states that the AVERAGE of 10 specimens
must yield a platelet count of less than 5000/uL in order to validate a centrifuge. At
the facility in question, one specimen had a count of 10,000/uL, and another was 13,000/uL. But the rest were so low that the average was <5000/uL and the centrifuge was considered validated. The inspector said specimens processed by that centrifuge must be double-spun.
I am wondering what procedures other laboratories use. Do they have a policy for an outlier? Or is one specimen that yields a platelet count of >
;10,000 enough to say that a centrifuge is not validated for single-spins?
Hi, Heather, thanks for the question, it is sure to generate reponses. I will check with our UAB folks on Wednesday, however just superficially it seems like your CAP inspector was correct. I think each centrifuge mus consistently produce PPP with a count less than 10,000/uL. It would be interesting to learn what the unspun counts wer for the specimens you ran through your QC.