Unofficial Abbott Alinity CI Tips, Tricks and Helps

Hello chem techs. Anybody here use shorter short sample cups? The ones that Abbott supplies are nearly as long as the tube and routinely gets jammed in the gel.

Fun fact for the day: this man is one of the smartest people who ever lived. He reportedly has a 178 IQ. Einstein was 160.

Greeting fellow Chemistry folks. How’s everyone’s Alinities doing?

Tip on the reaction vessels, don’t load until it asks you to load and then only 1 bag. It can jam if it get too full.

How’s everybody doing this new year? Is you Abbott behaving? Share some tips, stories or pet peves. How long have you been using the Alinity’s?

We’ve had slight issues with aspiration errors, but not nearly as bad as the Atellicas that would suck a specimen dry. All in all they have been quite good to date.

Merry christmas!!

Off topic help please. Siemens icto test. Good until expiration test of unopened bottle, what about an opened bottle? Package insert doesnt say. Anybody use these have that answer please.
Thankyou.

So first quarterly maint was performed on the Alinities. Downtime is at less than 2% while the Atellicas were at over 15. The Attelicas needed a major repair/replacement of parts before we even put it into service. Alinities went smoothly

Software is nearly cakewalk when compared to the Attelicas, but the Attelicas have a few options the Alinitys don’t such as one touch reruns. This one has just 3 buttons to hit and you know exactly what reagents to add.

Love the Alinities.

So a bit of an odd thing to watch out for. EXTCQ failed QC. We disabled it until we had time to troubleshoot but a few UDS did get loaded by mistake. They still ran. Careful if you disable a test, it might not actually disable.

Corrected reports look bad for everybody. 😪

Welcome Jean. Feel free to share or ask questions.

Does anybody know how to turn off the log in or extend the time it times out?

So yesterday I had an alert come across on a UDS (urine drug screen) in the LIS. It showed ALL drugs positive and freaked me out. Then I noticed it was only 3 drugs but also the auto repeats for 6 lines of yellow) and the negative ones auto released. I love this! Score another for Alinity.

The atellica was great as far as removing errored samples. This one however is in smaller racks of 5. No drawers to open or close or break like the Atellicas. The problem with the Alinity is if a sample errors you can’t remove it until the rest in the rack are done. I therefore suggest you try to group like specimens for time. An example would be don’t run a BMP in the same rack as a CMP with a procal. You have a couple dozen rack spots so it’s no big deal really.
Creatinine seems to be the slowest of the common tests at around (havent timed it) 7-8 minutes. PCT and TSH are 3 times that. We have it set so if a sample has a “C” and an “I”, it releases the “C” while the “I” is still running.

After a week’s worth of use, we’re getting used to the new machines. They seem to be extremely tollerant of short samples for most tests, PCT needs a bit more at around 125 ul min.
It also seems to run any kind of tube/cup. The Alinity SSC will even run directly in the rack. Side note, when loading racks with samples, always have it in a tray.
Somebody say hi. Haven’t seen any posts yet, want to make sure you all even can. Maybe share some experiences with the units.

Cheers

So I had my first shift with the Alinity yesterday. Not without problems as you’d expect with a new machine, but fairly minimal. Lots of aspirate errors, but I think it was because of micro bubbles in the pour off.

Now to get the IT/LIS bugs worked out….

One issue we had is we ran out of acid wash onboard, not a big issue except we had no open wells to put another one on utill that came off. Wish they had a bit more onboard reagent capacity.

Welcome. It’s still a work in progress so please be patient. Accepting suggestions. Feel free to share.

Welcome Abbott users! This page is all about the Alinity, not politics, religion, food or astrology so please stay focused.
Post questions, answers or things you’ve learned. Sometimes even the small things are a big help. It may be common knowledge to you, but another it’s a revelation.
Enjoy.