The ROTOLAVIT is a centrifuge for the washing of erythrocytes. It is used in serological testing. The centrifuge can be used for routine washing procedures that are carried out in blood banks and transfusion centres.
The compatibility of the blood from the donor with that of the recipient must be checked before a transfusion procedure. Laboratory personnel therefore carry out cross-matching tests. Antibody testing is also one of the procedures used for blood typing. The antibody tests allow the identification of irregular anti-erythrocyte antibodies that can give rise to problems in transfusions.
Before performing the tests it is first necessary to wash the erythrocytes of the donor. The erythrocytes must be free of any serum residues as these could falsify the result.
The ROTOLAVIT dispenses with the need for time-consuming manual washing steps. The centrifuge carries out the number of washing cycles automatically. For each wash cycle the pre-selected volume of wash solution is filled into each of 12 or 24 blood collection tubes (depending on the rotor), mixed with the blood drops present in the tubes and centrifugation carried out. The supernatant is then automatically decanted.
After the last wash cycle is complete, anti-human globulin serum (for the Coombs test) is added manually. In a final centrifugation step the possible agglutination reaction is accelerated.
