Korean J Blood Transfus.  2023 Dec;34(3):189-197. 10.17945/kjbt.2023.34.3.189.

Comparison of Column Agglutination Technique and Tube Test for ABO Antibody Titration and Crossmatching

• Lim YA

• KMID: 2549681
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.17945/kjbt.2023.34.3.189

Abstract

Background
ABO Ab titration using Erytra Eflexis (Diagnostic Grifols, Barcelona, Spain, abbreviated as Eflexis) and a pretransfusion crossmatching using DG Gel Coombs Card (Diagnostic Grifols, abbreviated as Card) were compared with the tube test (TT) to help laboratories.
Methods
Samples subjected to TT were titrated for ABO antibody using the Eflexis. The titers obtained were thereafter converted into log steps of 2 (n=20 for each ABO group). The reference range (RR) of the ABO Ab titer using Eflexis was determined using samples from health checkup patients (n=30 for each ABO group). The Card and LISS-antihuman globulin (AHG) test of TT were compared for 40 cases with identified antibodies.
Results
The average titers of IgM anti-B of blood group A by TT (3.2 vs 2.4, P＜0.001), and anti-A of type O by Eflexis (4.5. vs 5.5, P=0.001 for IgM, 6.3. vs 7.3, P＜0.001 for total antibody) were higher compared to the alternative method. The RRs of IgM (total antibody) of anti-B and anti-A were determined to be 1:2≤ (1:2≤) for anti-B in group A, 1:8≤ (1:8≤) for anti-A in group B, and 1:8≤ (1:32≤) and 1:16≤ (1:32≤) for anti-B and anti-A in group O, respectively. A comparison of crossmatching revealed that the average hemagglutination strength of the Card was 1.65, which was stronger than the LISS-AHG of 0.50 (P＜0.001).
Conclusion
The results of this study are expected to provide valuable insights for the establishment and guidance of laboratory tests utilizing Eflexis and Card.

Keyword

ABO antibody titer; Crossmatch; Analyzer; Column agglutination; Tube test