[A RhD negative patient failed to produce detectable anti-D after transfusion of 35 units of RhD positive red blood cells]

Abstract

In the present day, pretransfusion tests include ABO and RhD grouping, antibody screening, antibody identification, and cross matching. Although error rates for these tests have decreased compared to those in the past, clerical errors still occur. When exposed to RhD positive RBCs, a RhD negative person can produce anti-D that causes a severe hemolytic disease of the fetus and the newborn in addition to hemolytic transfusion reactions. Therefore, administration of RhD positive RBCs to a RhD negative person should be avoided. We experienced a RhD negative patient who had been misidentified as positive and transfused 35 units of RhD positive RBCs eight years ago, but did not have detectable anti-D in present. The red cells of the patient showed no agglutination with the anti-D reagent and a negative result in the standard weak D test. The multiplex PCR with sequence-specific priming revealed that the patient was RhD negative.