Robotization of Cross Match test in Immunohematology

Cross match test or cross matching includes several steps, before a transfusion or organ transplantation, useful for reducing immunological rejections in receiving patients. This project came from the need for the robotization of the cross match setup which would lead to an organizational, economic and safety benefit for the Immunogenetic area. Nowadays this test takes place manually in immunohematology laboratories. The automation of the test would make the co-presence of two people no longer necessary with the consequent reduction of costs and the error probability. The first step necessary for the thesis work was to examine the entire procedure of the compatibility test to understand each cross match step and to analyze human errors that can arise. The idea was to develop a dispenser that would automatically withdraw the reagents from the Eppendorf tubes, positioned by the laboratory technicians, and dispense the desired quantities into the specific wells of the reaction plate according to a well-defined scheme. After these meetings, a more detailed study of the test, a first setup of a working sequence and the prediction of the future robot’s movements through the definition of flow charts were carried out autonomously. For the concretization of the project, Inpeco group was available to collaborate for the realization of the device. It is important to underline that in the current Inpeco production there is no automatic system capable of realizing the cross match procedure, carried out manually today, but there are technologies and skills that can be made available for our purpose. The objective of this visit, in fact, was precisely to offer a starting point towards the possibility of reproducing some elements already present on the market and towards the knowledge of the limits of these elements that prohibit their use in the future robot object of the thesis. Starting from an Inpeco device, that seemed to be the most compatible with our application, the possibility of modifying the aspiration/dispensing process was studied to make it usable in the automated procedure of the cross match test. In addition, efforts were made to obtain a level of accuracy of the instrument as close as possible to that of the devices currently used in the laboratory. As regards the sensors, the possibility of introducing liquid level and clot detection sensors already used by the Inpeco group was considered valid. Thanks to the collaboration with Inpeco group, the project gets to propose a concrete solution with a complete description of the characteristics of the new system.