title: Polyagglutination in hospitalized patients: a prospective study.
abstract: A hospital population at high risk for red cell polyagglutination was studied prospectively in search for cryptantigen exposure. The patients included in this study suffered from: malignancies, sepsis, direct antiglobulin test (DAT) negative anemias and various combinations of these three. 238 patients were examined, and 18 of these (7.6%) were found to have exposed cryptantigens on their erythrocytes. This is an unexpectedly high percentage. Our findings suggest that cryptantigen exposure on the red cells is a more common phenomenon than previously described, especially when looked for in a carefully chosen population. The red cells of these patients are potentially polyagglutinable, and screening with lectins will ensure their pretransfusion identification and evaluation.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004903:Erythrocyte Aggregation / Q000209:etiology; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006384:Hemagglutination; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007519:Isoantigens / Q000276:immunology; D037102:Lectins / Q000494:pharmacology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D007519:Isoantigens; D037102:Lectins; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic