Low-Tech Blood Typing

[Faint]

Twice this weekend I've come across that excerpt from (I believe) Lucifer's Hammer where the woman is trying to identify blood donors using a low tech method, including swinging the test tube of blood around since she doesn't have a centrifuge.

Ok, some years ago I was told by a chemist that you could at least identify blood types by using urine. He said that he'd done it in a class but remembered no more. I believe urine from a B blood type clotted or clouded urine from an A type.

Seems to me that if you were ever in a tight spot of the sort the fictional woman was, there might be a number of willing donors who didn't know their blood type. If a simple urine test could at least do some preliminary sorting, that would be a tremendous help, plus reducing syringe/needle use, risk of infection (since sterlization would also be problematic) and save some time if obvious non-matches could be quickly and easily elimanated.

Any of you know any more about this?


Faint

PS I've read that you can put a raw in-shell egg in a sling and swing it around and around (and probably around and around and around) and eventually end up with a "hard boiled" egg. Now that's cooking for a remote/austere location.

[AGreyMan]

Faint:

Hi, and thanks for posting. An interesting supposition that I would be curious about. Off the top of my head though, I can't think of how this would work: I would think for blood typing you would need the components of blood at least (antigens and antibodies) in the urine. Most folks don't have but a few cells in the urine.

I'm not saying it wouldn't work, but I am saying I don't see how.

Most blood typing is fairly easy anyway. Lots of place sell cards that just require a drop of blood. Also, if you are going to actually transfuse, I would at least do the two parts of the crossmatch that only require saline.

Interesting to see. Maybe I'll have a buddy pee in a cup and I'll do the same, to see for myself!!!

Thanks for the post!

Stay Safe,
AGreyMan

[Faint]

I have no clue, I'm way out of my league here. Certainly an interesting curiosity though. And I can see people being in a spot where they might not have access to the cards you wrote of.

It'll be interesting to see if you can come up with anything experimenting. I don't have a clue about time, temp, agitation or anything else. I am wondering though if the old chamber pots might have been the start of this idea. I could see where (assuming this works to some degree) there might have been nights where one spouse used the pot and nights where both used it. A curious person might have wondered what happened to the urine to make it clot or cloud by morning. After all, every scientific advance had to start somewhere, somehow.

Faint