cold panel

[ashleymarie33]

I am wondering if anyone can tell me when you are doing a cold panel, why must you use O pos cord blood when testing against patients serum? Why cant you use just any cord blood?

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

I am wondering if anyone can tell me when you are doing a cold panel, why must you use O pos cord blood when testing against patients serum? Why cant you use just any cord blood?

The answer is that you can; there is nothing magical or advantageous about using group O, D+ cord blood over group O, D- cord blood.

You are actually using it (usually) to distinguish between an auto-anti-I and an auto-anti-i (and sometimes an auto-anti-HI or, rarely, an auto-anti-Hi), none of which have anything to do with the Rh type.

In addition, of course, cord blood may be negative for, or express very weakly, other blood group antigens, such as those of the Lutheran Blood Group System.

On the other hand, in cases of warm autoimmune haemolytic anaemia, if you are really worried about the specificity of the auto-antibody, cord blood that is group O, D- actually has advantages over cord blood that is group O, D+, in that it can be used to distinguish between an auto-anti-D and an auto-anti-LW (but frankly, who cares about this distinction??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), as all cord blood expresses the LW antigen more strongly than adult blood (unless, of course, the baby is genuinely LW-, which is incredibly rare).

:D:D:D:D:D

[JOANBALONE]

In addition to Malcolm's reasons a patient's isoagglutinins, such as anti-A or anti-B, will not react with group O cord cells.

Edited May 16, 2010 by JOANBALONE
typo/another typo