[Initial results of a prospective study with automated solid phase and column/agglutination techniques in screening...

We report the first results of a prospective study concerning antibody screening in transfusion recipients. We compared the standard tube test (Liss Coombs) with two commercial tests for the detection of red cell IgG antibodies: (1) a column/agglutination test and (2) a microplate/solid-phase system. The results of the study demonstrate several significant advantages of the two methods as compared with the standard tube test. The new methods, especially the microplate test, are superior in determining red cell antibodies which are relevant to transfusion. The two methods are more sensitive and, when automated, more efficient and safer as compared with the standard tube test.