title: Monocyte monolayer assay (MMA) reactivity of alloantibodies reacting by the manual polybrene technique but not by an antiglobulin test.
abstract: The manual polybrene technique (MP) has been shown to be useful in pretransfusion testing as a rapid method capable of detecting a wide range of red cell antibodies. The clinical significance of alloantibodies reacting by the MP but not by an antiglobulin test (MP+/AGT-) has not been determined. The monocyte monolayer assay (MMA) is an established in vitro technique for assessing the likely clinical significance of red cell antibodies. This was used to examine 21 MP+/AGT- alloantibodies and 41 alloantibodies reacting by a LISS antiglobulin method (LISS-AGT). Two of the 21 MP+/AGT- antibodies (9.5%) produced positive results by the MMA compared with 26/41 (63.4%) of LISS-AGT-reactive antibodies. The incidence of positive reactivity of the latter antibodies in the MMA was similar between those that were reactive and nonreactive by the MP. These results suggest that antibodies reacting by MP and not by an antiglobulin test are less likely to be clinically significant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology, Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lown
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Willis
mesh_terms: D003298:Coombs Test; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007118:Immunoassay; D007518:Isoantibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D009000:Monocytes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D007518:Isoantibodies