Retrospective analysis of T and B cells flow-cross matches in renal transplant recipients

Abstract

Complement-mediated cytotoxic antibodies in conventional cross match, often result in misappropriation of true positives and borderline positives which are detrimental to allograft survival. Flow cross matches (FCXM) are sensitive to capture even non complement fixing cytotoxic antibodies. This retrospective study evaluates the utility of FCXM in effectively predicting acute allograft rejection. A total of 17 cases were processed for FCXM (T and B cell) of whom seven had no rejection episodes, while the remaining 11 had acute rejection despite negative cross match and panel reacting antibodies being negative (less than 20%). The sensitivity and specificity of the FCXM outcome demonstrated that positive B-cell FCXM has potential to be a good tool in pre-transplant screening. The current analysis proposes the possible utility of B-cell positive FCXM as a more sensitive parameter in predicting acute allograft rejection prior to transplantation.