About Blood Systems Laboratories

Donor Testing Department
Blood Systems, Inc. has two Donor Testing Service (DTS) laboratories. Our second laboratory, in Bedford, Texas was opened in 1999. Both DTS laboratories are Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensed facilities. Both DTS laboratories also hold current certifications for the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA) as well as accreditation with the American Association of Blood Banks and the New York State Department of Health. The DTS laboratory in Tempe, AZ also holds accreditation with the State of California. In addition to donor specimen testing, the laboratories participate in clinical evaluation of reagents, test kits, and equipment.

DTS provides the highest quality in testing and service. The laboratories maintain internal Quality Control programs and participate voluntarily in external Quality Assurance programs. Blood specimens are processed utilizing state of the art technology with FDA licensed test kits and reagents.

Special Testing Laboratory
Our Special Testing Laboratory in Tempe performs confirmatory and supplemental testing of donor samples as well as non-donation testing such as re-entry, post exposure and donor follow-up. We also provide testing for eye banks, tissue banks and cord blood centers.

CQC – Component Quality Control
Our Component Quality Control laboratory in Tempe provides blood component quality control testing. White Blood Cell (WBC) counts are performed on leukoreduced products. Factor VIII and Fibrinogen assays are performed on Cryoprecipitate and Fresh Frozen Plasma.

IRL - Immunohematology Reference Laboratory
The Immunohematology Reference Laboratory in Tempe (IRL) is accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks for high complexity testing. IRL personnel resolve complex serological patient workups for the purpose of providing safe, effective blood transfusions. Platelet antibody screens and crossmatches are also performed. The IRL section provides compatibility services for non-acute transfusion settings and has access to the American Rare Donor Program for acquiring rare blood for patients with special needs.

HLA - Histocompatibility Laboratory Service
The Histocompatibility Lab in Tempe (HLA Laboratory) is accredited by the American Society for Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics for performance of high resolution DNA typing of both class I and class II HLA alleles. Patients in need of bone marrow or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation as well as both related and unrelated donors can be typed. The percent CD34 positive cells in blood, pheresis products, and bone marrow samples are analyzed by flow cytometry. Anti-HLA antibody screening, anti-HLA antibody specificity, and lymphocytotoxic crossmatches are also performed. DNA parentage testing is also available.