Making type and screen policy an essential component of pretransfusion testing: Need of the hour in India

Abstract

Introduction: “Type and screen” policy involves the prior determination of patient blood group and antibody screening at the time of admission irrespective of the need of the blood transfusion to the patient. Materials and Methods: As a part of our retrospective analysis, we have evaluated our data from January 2014 to June 2016. Blood grouping was done by column agglutination technology (CAT) using DiaClon ABO/D+ Reverse Grouping cards (BIO-RAD, Switzerland). Antibody screening and identification were done using three cell panels (ID-DiaCell I-II-III Asia panel by BIO-RAD, Switzerland) and 11 cell panels (ID-DiaPanel-P by BIO-RAD, Switzerland) on CAT with LISS/Coombs cards. Results: A total of 17,896 patients requests for “type and screen” were received by the department during the study. Out of which 201 (1.12%; 1 in 89 patients) patients were found to have positive antibody screen. Out of 201 patients (132 females; 69 males); mean age group of 45.6 years (range: 1 day–85 years). Out of 201, 145 patients developed single antibody, 15 patients had double antibody, and in 41 positive antibody screens the specificity of alloantibodies were not identified either due to an interfering autoantibody (n = 10) or the specificity was not resolved on extended panels (n = 31) even with enzymes. Conclusion: “Type and screen” policy helps in timely blood group typing of the patients and providing enough time for the blood bank to arrange for blood. Our analysis shows the presence of an alloantibody in every 89 requests received for “type and screen.”

Keywords

• Alloantibody
• antibody screening
• autoantibody
• computer cross-matching
• type and screen policy