On June 10 one of my flow neighbors in the Harvard/ Longwood Medical area
Abby Allen asked about how to keep a self service flow cytometer clean when
used by many users .
We also have a multiuser(~90+) instrument (Coulter XL/MCL) that is pretty
much self service. We rquire that at the start and end of each user's session
that a cleansing solution (Coulter Clenz) is run . Polyscience green
fluorescent beads are beads are run after the starting Coulter Clenz program
. At the end of the day the last person signed up is responsible for running
a 'shut-down' panel which was supplied by Coulter with the XL . This panel
consists of five protocols . The first protocol called "bleach " runs a 50%
Bleach /ddH20 for about 4 minutes with time as a stop parameter and volume
mode which a preset volume over preset time intervals. The next four
protocols are called "isoflow" that run in a similar manner. We do not use
isoflow but use distilled water in the next four tubes . One of the good
things about this panel is that it prints out each of the protocols at the
end of each run . That way there should be paper hardcopy in your printer the
next morning verifyng that the cleaning panel was run .
We have run close to 65,000 tube over the past year on this machine and
residual debris or clogging has not been a problem.
I would suggest that you require each user to spend 60 seconds at the start
and end of each session running a protocol that is some type of cleaning
solution like coulter clenz( or whatever BD recommends) and store and print
this protocol out to assure that it is being done. Just make sure that you
have cleaning solution available near the instrument . If certain users do
not adopt this cleaning responsibility I would suggest that you take
measures to reinforce appropiate behavior (e.g. Charge them a higher usage
rate or deny access to the cytometer.) . At least you will know who has been
neglecting their share of the responsibility .
Just remember "A clean machine is a Happy Machine!"
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