Abbott i-STAT 1 System Manual - page 183

PROCEDURE FOR CARTRIDGE TESTING

12

Art: 714374-00J 

Rev. Date: 25-Aug-11 

12-1

Caution

The following cautions should be taken to prevent damage to the analyzer and 

to ensure the safety of the operator and the integrity of results.

• Never look into the barcode scanner beam or point it toward

anyone’s eyes.  The beam could cause permanent eye damage.

• Donotattempttoremoveacartridgeduringthetestingcycle.The

force that would be necessary to do so could damage the analyzer.  

The message “Cartridge Locked” will remain on the screen until the 

analyzer unlocks the cartridge.

• The analyzer may be contaminated with blood from prior use.

Whenever handling the analyzer, cartridges, and peripherals exercise 

universal precautions to protect yourself from blood-borne pathogens.   

Universal precautions are those procedures and practices, such as 

the wearing of gloves, designed to protect personnel from blood-

borne pathogens as well as pathogens from other body substances.  

These precautions are based on the assumption that blood, body 

fluids or tissue can contain infectious agents and, therefore, should 

be treated as a biohazard. For more detailed information, please 

refer to either the CDC/NIH manual, "Biosafety in Microbiological

and Biomedical Laboratories", Fourth Edition, 1999, or the WHO

"LaboratoryBiosafetyManual",SecondEdition,2003.

To protect from nosocomial infections, decontaminate analyzers 

periodically and whenever blood is spilled or transferred to an 

analyzer.  See under "Cleaning the Analyzer and Downloader" in

section17ofthismanual.

• A falling analyzer may cause injury. Always place the analyzer and

peripherals on a stable surface or in a location where it will not cause 

injuryifdropped.

• The analyzer may be rendered inoperative by damage due to

mishandling, such as dropping, by exhausting the batteries or by 

other causes.  Clinical settings that demand fail-safe testing should 

reduce this risk by having a backup analyzer or test source available. 

• The analyzer should not be used in environmental conditions that

exceed the operating temperature and humidity specifications.  An

analyzer that has been exposed to extreme environmental conditions 

must be allowed to come to equilibrium with the operating 

environmentpriortouse.Note:theanalyzerwilldisplaythemessage

“Temperature Out of Range” until it has reached its operating

temperature. 

• Theanalyzeranditsperipheralsarenotlistedbyanyauthoritywith

respect to suitability for use in oxygen enriched atmospheres.

• Proper procedure must be used to ensure correct manual entry of

patientID,operatorID,sampletypeandotherdatathatmayaffect

the clinician’s interpretation of results.