Evaluation of a new rapid anti-HbF FITC assay, Trillium QuikQuant, for detection and quantitation of foetomaternal haemorrhage.
BACKGROUND
This study evaluated a new product for flow cytometric foetomaternal haemorrhage (FMH) quantitation, Trillium QuikQuant anti-HbF FITC kit (Trillium Diagnostics, USA), in comparison with the Millipore anti-HbF FITC method.


METHODS
Blood from 67 antenatal or postpartum RhD-negative women together with 108 samples spiked with 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 2%, 4%, 5%, 6%, 8% and 10% of foetal red cells were analysed by both methods.


RESULTS
Results for both methods were linear to 10% foetal red cells. Analysis using the Wilcoxon test found that there was no difference between the paired results of Trillium QuikQuant and the expected values of the spiked samples (P = 0.48). In contrast, Millipore anti-HbF FITC gave statistically higher results compared with both the expected values and Trillium QuikQuant anti-HbF FITC (P = 0.0003 and P < 0.0001, respectively). The Bland-Altman plot for Trillium QuikQuant showed a mean difference of only 0.06% below the expected values, whilst Millipore was 0.13% above. The analysis time with Trillium QuikQuant was approximately 40 min, requiring significantly less hands-on time than the Millipore method that required an additional four wash steps.


CONCLUSIONS
Trillium QuikQuant is a new precise, accurate and rapid flow cytometric kit method for the quantitation of FMH in both the antenatal and postpartum period.
Haematology Department, PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA, Perth, WA, Australia.
E A
EA
Fong
J
J
Finlayson
F
F
Robins
J
J
Davies
J
J
Joseph
E
E
Rossi
D E
DE
Grey
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005319:Fetal Hemoglobin / Q000032:analysis*; D005331:Fetomaternal Transfusion / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D016650:Fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate / Q000737:chemistry; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System / Q000097:blood; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors
D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System; D005319:Fetal Hemoglobin; D016650:Fluorescein-5-isothiocyanate