Evaluation of Four Bedside Test Systems for Card Performance, Handling and Safety

Area of Science:

• Transfusion Medicine
• Hematology
• Clinical Diagnostics

Background:

• Pretransfusion ABO compatibility testing is critical to prevent ABO-incompatible transfusions, a major risk in transfusion medicine.
• Distinct agglutination is key for accurate interpretation, while infectious disease protection and ease of handling are vital for reliable test performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate differences in test card design, handling, and user safety for pretransfusion ABO compatibility testing.
• To compare the performance of four distinct bedside test card systems.

Main Methods:

• 100 medical students evaluated four bedside test cards using packed red blood cells of different ABO blood groups.
• Evaluation criteria included agglutination clarity, labeling, handling, and user safety, rated using a German school grading system (1=very good to 6=insufficient).

Main Results:

• All tested cards correctly identified ABO blood groups with generally good performance.
• Cards with dried antibodies (no. 2 and no. 4) showed superior overall performance, labeling, handling, and user safety compared to liquid antibody systems.
• Card no. 4 and no. 1/3 showed significantly clearer agglutination compared to card no. 2.

Conclusions:

• While all tested ABO compatibility test cards performed well, card no. 4 offered the best combination of clear agglutination, overall performance, handling, and safety.
• Card no. 2 and card no. 4, utilizing dried antibodies, generally outperformed systems with liquid antibodies across multiple evaluated criteria.