DCA Vantage Errors

Hi Meaghan,
None of my testing sites using Siemens Vantage DCA A1c has reported this.

I looked up code E104 (HbA1c Sample Error - low total hemoglobin (no or low blood reaction, Hemoglobin < 7g/dl = anemic patient among others that you've probably already considered).

My thought was 'could technique in wiping off the pipette without pulling out specimen be something to look at'?
I don't know about your facility but we are still in throes of low staffing, floating and for us, the pipette getting wiped properly before insertion into the cassette, and not waiting too long to get the blood into the pipette and the pipette into the cassette and the cassette into the analyzer 'on time' is a constant source of worry.
Good Luck.
Peggy

Hi Meaghan, I just had my endocrinology office report E104 low hemoglobin today on two patients.  However, I believe one is related to testing after 5 minutes and sample clotted in the capillary tube.  There was some blood observed still in the capillary holder after the test ran.  The other patient has chronic anemia and their recent Hgb was 9.2, so I recommended to the provider that the patient have their Hgb checked.  Just in case however, what lot of reagent cartridge are you using?

A couple of weeks ago we had a few of these errors.  We thought it may have been attributed to either new users, not wiping off outside of capillary tube or waiting longer than 5 minutes to start the test.  I gave them some tips and have not heard of any other errors.  I am curious as to what lot number you are using and if we are using the same one.

I have been getting these E104 for a few months now. It has been with different analyzers, lots numbers and operators. I have done extra "canned air" cleaning on instruments. I have gone over and watched the operators perform the test and went over all steps of performing the test to ensure operators are running them as intended. I also too have had some capillary's that still had blood in them when the test cartridge was removed. My last resort was that I replaced 4 analyzers thinking that mine were just so old and this still didn't resolve the error. I have spoke with Tech Support and I gather that they may be having some issues in the manufacturing of the capillarys but they aren't committing to any one thing. Not sure what to do at this point. 

Thank you all for your replies.  The lot numbers that are currently in use are 9599, 0077, and 0609.
That is interesting about a possible issue with the manufacturing of the capillaries.  We are planning to go and observe their process in the next few days to ensure everything is being done correctly as we are unsure what to do next too.  We have a total of 9 different clinics that are using this device and only one of them is reporting issues.