BD FACSDuet™ Sample Preparation System

The BD FACSDuet™ answers the growing needs of the laboratories to handle different types and sizes of specimen tubes and supports the need for consolidation and testing centralisation in hospitals. The BD FACSDuet™ delivers the flexibility that is required by supporting twenty-two (22) different types of blood collection tubes from different manufacturers. The choice includes BD Vacutainer®, Sarstedt S-Monovette™, Greiner and Streck tubes.

Specimen management is driven by tube adaptors. Seven (7) tube adaptors are available; they are barcoded and color coded for easy identification; they guarantee accurate tube piercing and sample volume dispensing.

Two type of specimen racks are available, of which one is specifically designed for pediatric tubes (B)

Specimen traceability and automated worklist creation are guaranteed by 5 different barcodes on the specimen rack, identifying:

1. Rack
2. Tube position
3. Empty position
4. Adaptor
5. Specimen

Automated barcode scanning during rack insertion enables:

• Patient specimen traceability
• Pipetting management
• Retrieving patient and assay information from Laboratory Information System (LIS) for automated worklist creation

Worklist traceability is enabled by the scanning of the carrier barcode that is associated with a specific worklist and defined specimens.

Secondary tubes are loaded in the BD FACSDuet™ onto 30 and/or 40 tube sample carriers, compatible with the BD FACSLyric™ loader and in the footprint of 96 well plate.

Barcoded secondary tubes are scanned to guarantee sample traceability and association to the specimen and the worklist

By accommodating up to 46 reagent vials in 2 separate racks, the BD FACSDuet™ delivers flexibility in antibody panel design and walkaway capabilities. Vial adaptors allow the use of reagent vials of different sizes.

In addition to the one on the antibody vial (4), the reagent rack carries 3 barcodes: one identifying the rack (1), another the reagent position (2) and a third identifying the empty position (3).

Barcodes on reagent racks and antibody vials drive reagent traceability, efficient antibody management and reduction of reagent waste.

The cocktailing functionality allows on-board, automated antibody cocktail preparation, eliminating the risk of errors due to manual pipetting and enabling the automated recording of all used antibodies for easier tracking and auditing.  Part number, lot number and expiry date of the cocktail – as defined by the user – are also tracked and recorded to ensure quality and consistency in laboratory workflow. 

Each antibody cocktail can be made from a maximum of 45 unique conjugates in a single cocktailing vial. Users’ cocktail recipes are stored in the software and available for subsequent preparations of the same cocktail. Once prepared, the cocktail is considered as any other reagent and available in the user reagent library for selection.

Cocktails designed to contain more than one BD Horizon™ Brilliant dye can include automated addition of BD Horizon™ Brilliant Stain Buffer or BD Horizon™ Brilliant Stain Buffer Plus, ensuring dye stability and staining performance.

The cocktailing software is an integral part of the BD FACSDuet software, and is as intuitive and easy-to-use as the rest of the software.