Diagnostics

Each of the blood bank labs is a central part of a university hospital's hospital blood bank function: BLB for UZ Brussel, BLG for UZ Gent, and BLL for UZ Leuven.

BL performs immunohematological laboratory tests for the compatibility of therapeutic blood products (through the determination of RBC antigens and RBC antibodies) and in hematological disorders such as autoimmune hemolytic anemia.
These blood bank labs are also the central repository for blood products in the hospitals involved and play a central role in ensuring hemovigilance and traceability of blood products as required by hospital blood bank legislation.
Clinical biology laboratories and hospital blood banks of institutions outside the three aforementioned university hospitals also call upon the special expertise of the three blood bank laboratories, both to perform specialized laboratory diagnostics on immunohaematological problems and to dispense blood products requiring special compatibility tests.

CELA carries out laboratory tests with a view to guaranteeing the suitability and safety of the blood products made available by the blood establishment of the blood service from Belgian Red Cross-Flanders for therapeutic administration to patients.
Moreover, CELA's scope is partly regulated by Belgian and European legislation and guidelines for blood establishments. Consequently, in specifying the quality requirements for CELA, these legal provisions and directives also apply as binding guidelines and the contractual obligations of CELA's blood establishment towards third parties are taken into account.
CELA performs research exclusively on material from living heart-beating donors.

The core mission of HILA is to provide quality research results in the 4 major categories as described by the European Federation of Immunogenetics (EFI) :

• Compatibility testing in the context of organ transplantation, including the provision of expert opinion in the selection or rejection of a donor organ based on HLA data.
• HLA typing in the context of stem cell transplantation, including expert advice in selecting the best compatible donor for a patient.

In both previous disciplines, HILA is both "donor center HLA laboratory" and "transplant center HLA laboratory."

• Perform HLA typing in the diagnosis of HLA-associated diseases and demonstrate or predict HLA-specific responses to medications, among other things. The latter is currently often described as part of "personalized medicine."
• Performing HLA, HPA and other blood group testing. This activity falls under the heading of blood transfusion and transfusion reactions. Prenatal and neonatal diagnosis of thrombopenia are also included in this category.   

To help as many patients as possible, HILA is part of an extensive national and international network of partners and institutions including:

• CRDs other sections of the blood service, including the blood establishment and the voluntary stem cell donor registry.
• Flemish university hospitals and general hospitals
• Private laboratories
• Eurotransplant, an international organization that coordinates all actions around organ donation and organ allocation for a large European region. It is because of this cooperation with Eurotransplant that HILA has acquired EFI accreditation for many years.
• Marrow Donor Program-Belgium registry or MDP-B, the Belgian stem cell registry, patronized by the Belgian Red Cross, which collects the HLA data of all Belgian potential voluntary stem cell donors. This organization is also the hub for other national and international stem cell donor and transplant centers.