[Use of red cells of patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobulinuria for the detection of hemolyzing antibodies]

Abstract

90 serum samples from patients with cold agglutinin syndrome were tested for the presence of complement dependent hemolysins, against normal donor red cells versus red cells from patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. Hemolysins could be found only in 50% of samples in the first but in up to 95% of samples in the second test configuration. The difference in sensitivity was still more pronounced when protease untreated red cells were used: 1 weak versus 64 strong reactions. The high performance of PNH red cells in detecting hemolysins is specifically observable in any patient with this disease, and should be utilized as a useful diagnostic tool to reveal hemolysins otherwise undetectable by conventional immunohematologic methods.