Evaluation of the Automated QWALYS-3 System for ABO and RhD Grouping and Unexpected Antibody Screening

Ko, Young Hyun; Kim, Ji Myung; Koo, Sun Hoe; Lim, Jinsook; Park, Young Choon; Kwon, Kye Chul

Abstract

BACKGROUND
One hundred years after the discovery of the ABO blood group system by Landsteiner, agglutination is still the most widely used method for determining the blood grouping and for antibody detection. Yet the demand for suitable automated systems is obvious in the field of transfusion. QWALYS-3 (DIAGAST, Loos Cedex, France) is a fully automated system for determining the ABO and RhD grouping and for antibody screening. We evaluated the ABO and RhD grouping and antibody screening test of the QWALYS-3.
METHODS
The ABO and RhD grouping and the antibody screening test were performed by the QWALYS-3 system and the results were compared to the manual methods for the ABO and RhD grouping and to the micro column agglutination method (DiaMed-ID system) for antibody screening.
RESULTS
For 574 of 574 clinical samples, there was complete concordance between the QWALYS-3 and the manual methods for determining the ABO and RhD grouping. The concordance rate between the QWALYS-3 and the micro column agglutination method for antibody screening in 210 clinical samples was 97.1%.
CONCLUSION
The QWALYS-3 system had a good concordance rate compared to the manual method and the micro column agglutination method. The QWALYS-3 system was robust and it gave accurate results during this evaluation. The QWALYS-3 system will contribute to achieving full automation of all the necessary blood bank tests.