I'm a newbie with a question- One place that I used to work would perform a 1 hour saline-IAT incubation after Gel/PeG technique screens were all positive if a warm autoantibody was suspect. If they could get that screen negative they would just call it the warm auto, if any screen cells were positive they would look for underlying allos. If it was all still positive they would send the sample to their reference lab. They did this to get around adsorptions, since they did not do them. There is a procedure in the AABB tech manual for 2 drops of plasma, but they would use 4 drops.

Sorry so long, but my question is if anyone else uses this technique, and it's different than what the AABB tech manual has- is there any data to back this method up?

Thank you!

We still use this method occasionally in my Reference Laboratory for both antibody identification and cross-matching, if we suspect that the antibody is LISS dependent.

Do not forget that this was not only the method of choice for many years before LISS and gel technology were invented, but was virtually the only method available - and we didn't kill hordes of patients.

It is, it is true, not as sensitive as LISS and/or gel, but it is sufficiently sensitive to detect clinically significant antibodies (by that, I don't mean all antibodies that have the potential to be clinically significant in the future, such as a weak reacting anti-C, but those that are clinically significant in the patient at the time). You may boost the odd antibody, but that will not kill the patient, and will make it a darn sight easier to detect the next time!

You will find this technique in virtually any old text book (pre-LISS and gel) that gives techniques.

:):)

We have been using this method for several years now, every since our reference laboratory suggested it to us. We no longer do adsorptions; if we need to, we will be sending them out since we no longer have the reagents on hand to perform one.

We have found the occassional underlying anti-E or anti-K by using this method.