Impact of allergy screening for blood donors: relationship to nonhemolytic transfusion reactions

There has been some discussion whether the atopic disposition of a blood donor is associated with a potentially higher incidence of hypersensitivity nonhemolytic transfusion reactions (NHTRs). Serum samples from patients who had suffered from NHTRs and samples from the platelet concentrates (PCs) responsible for the reactions were examined for total and specific IgE as diagnostic markers for allergic events. In addition, the allergy prevalence among 1,088 blood donors was determined to analyze the allergy prevalence among our blood donors. Our results indicate that in 90% of cases, allergic NHTRs were associated with specific IgE antibodies in the recipient's serum, indicating the allergic disposition of the patient. In contrast, specific IgE antibodies were detected in only 22% in the transfused PCs. However, among all investigated NHTRs, there was not a single case in which specific IgE antibodies were detected exclusively in the PC. The allergy prevalence among our blood donors was about 26%. In our opinion, the few cases in which the allergic disposition of blood donors in combination with the allergic disposition of the recipients was associated with NHTRs reflects the allergy prevalence among our blood donors in general (26%). On the basis of these findings, we conclude that allergy diagnosis for blood donors is only of minor value in the prevention and prediction of NHTRs, whereas allergy diagnosis for patients who require multiple PC transfusion might be helpful.