Antibody identification
This chapter describes identification of antibodies in blood products. Unexpected RBC antibodies are found in 1.2% to 35% of the population and initial detection of RBC alloantibodies can occur when testing the patient's plasma for ABO type, antibody screen and crossmatch. For detecting the antibody if it present in the patient's plasma, the specificity of the unexpected RBC antibody can be determined by testing the plasma against a panel of reagent RBCs. The most common methods for antibody identification are based on the agglutination of RBCs and a variety of techniques can be used for the detection such as tube and gel techniques followed by the solid phase method. Phenotyping of RBC is mentioned to be a useful aid in antibody identification which can be done by phenotyping direct antiglobulin test (DAT)-positive RBCs and phenotyping patients who have recently received transfusion. The RBC components need to be negative for the corresponding antigen against which the patient has a clinically significant alloantibody.
