2 Mysteries

[Malcolm Needs ☆]

That is a shame Brenda, but thank you for letting us know.

It sounds to me like the Medical Director of the ARC Laboratory could do with learning some manners (and learn to read your original and follow-up letters - i.e. the letters NOT mentioning either TRALI or TACO)!  I also think that his assertion that HLA antibodies are not found in male donors is a bit of a sweeping (and totally untrue) comment.  It is true, without doubt, that most HLA antibodies are found in females, and certainly this is true of most strong HLA antibodies, but the emphasis is on the word "most"!

All that having been said, I think that what evidence there is still points to the plasma of the platelet donation containing an antibody directed against a low-prevalence antigen (probably, but not necessarily in the 700 series), and that, even if the ill-mannered Medical Director had agreed to try to find a specificity, it may well have been like trying to find the proverbial "needle in a haystack", which would also be difficult to justify in terms of cost.  Nevertheless, much as I can see that it is all but impossible to justify the cost and the time investigating this, the "scientist" in me (and the ex-Reference Laboratory Manager in me) HATES to leave cases like this unsolved.  Ah well!!!!!!!!!!!