Experience with an albumin-enhanced, 15-minute incubation, emergency crossmatch

During a 40-month period, an emergency crossmatch procedure using an albumin-enhanced 15 minute incubation indirect antiglobulin technique was evaluated along with a standard procedure for 2,276 patients involving 6,423 units of blood. One hundred-forty unsuspected allo-antibodies were detected during this study, of which 130 were detected by both techniques. In five instances where antibodies were not detected by the emergency technique, the antibodies were not though to be clinically significant.