Antibody titers in Group O platelet donors.
OBJECTIVE
The occurrence of hemolysis due to transfusion of ABO plasma-incompatible platelets (PLTs) is challenging. There has been no consensus for critical antibody titers in the transfusion community. This study was conducted to understand the trends of anti-A and anti-B antibody titer levels in O group donors and to identify any specific patterns of distribution in relation to age and gender.


METHODS
A total of 1635 Group O PLT donors were randomly selected for this prospective study. Serial 2-fold doubling dilutions were prepared for each sample to calculate the titer of anti-A and anti-B in a standard 96 well micro-plate. Tube technique was used for comparison with the microplate method for 100 samples.


RESULTS
Out of 1635 donors, 1430 (87.46%) were males and 205 (12.54%) were females. The median titer for anti-A and anti-B was 128 with range from 4 to 2048. Spearman's correlation coefficient for microplate versus tube technique was estimated to be 0.803 (P< 0.01, two-tailed). 57.12% and 51.19% of all donors had titers ≥128 for anti-A and anti-B, respectively. The geometric mean of anti-A and anti-B was 155.7 and 137.28, respectively. The titers were significantly higher (P< 0.001) in female donors. An inverse relation between titer levels and age was seen.


CONCLUSIONS
Microplate can be used to perform titers in resource-constrained settings. Screening for critical titers in O group donors is essential as they are more implicated in hemolytic transfusion reactions. In the absence of a global consensus on this topic, institutes may need to formulate their own guidelines on handling ABO plasma-incompatible PLT transfusions.
Department of Transfusion Medicine, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Anita Amar
AA
Tendulkar
Department of Transfusion Medicine, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Puneet Ashok
PA
Jain
Department of Transfusion Medicine, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Sanjay
S
Velaye
Antibody titers; O group; hemolytic transfusion reaction; platelet donor