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Symptoms And Treatment Of Cold Antibodies

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Cold antibodies are one of the most encountered discrepancies in transfusion services. These discrepancies can be either benign, meaning they present little harm to the patient, to pathological, meaning they can harm the patient. Benign cold antibodies can affect the ABO typing, the Rh typing, direct anti-globulin test, the antibody detection and identification, and compatibility testing. Pathological cold antibodies are typically seen in cold hemagglutinin disease and certain infectious processes. Benign cold antibodies can be detected at room temperature testing and after the anti-globulin phase of the testing. Their effects are amplified if the temperature of the testing method is decreased with 4 being the optimal temperature. …show more content…

In the case of the benign cold antibody being detected in the back type, it can make patients appear as if they are a subgroup of A or B, which is unlikely. These sorts of discrepancies can be resolved in a similar manner as in the forward type such as pre-warms and 37incubations. In addition, using group O cells as a negative control can tell the technologist if they are dealing with a cold reacting antibody or not.
The next test a benign cold antibody can affect is the Rh typing. This has similar causes as the discrepancy seen in the forward ABO typing, which is due to excessive cold auto-agglutinin binding to the patient’s red blood cells. This discrepancy can also be resolved using the pre-warm or 37incubation. Furthermore, it should be noted that the Rh typing discrepancy has decreased substantially sine the reagent first came onto the market. This is due to them first being a polyclonal reagent with high protein concentrations that tended to react with the patient and control rendering the test invalid. The reagent has been improved and is now a monoclonal reagent with low protein which leads to less false positive results.
The third test that can be affected is the direct antibody test. This is typically seen when non-EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) tubes are used. This is due to these tubes not containing a chelating agent with rids the patients serum

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