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

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.