Prevalence of Irregular Red Cell Antibodies and Their Significance in Blood Transfusion and Antenatal Care

Abstract. The antibodies encountered in random collectives of 55,350 recipients, 16,643 pregnant women, and 1,307 mothers of babies with hemolytic disease are listed. Antibody screening was performed in all specimens using the same technique (albumin‐antiglobulin test), a limited number of selected sera was investigated also by the auto‐analyzer. Different frequencies of the antibodies concerned were found in all groups. Anti‐Kell was detected in 10% of all antibodies found in recipients whereas the frequency was less than 0.5% among the antibodies encountered in pregnant women and mothers of babies with hemolytic disease. The relative antigenic potency of the antigens concerned was calculated by taking into account the frequencies of the antibodies and the antigen exposure probability derived from the well‐known gene frequencies. Similar to the antibody frequencies, the relative antigenic potencies differ widely from antigen to antigen in the different collectives. By the autoanalyzer technique, it was not possible to detect additional antibodies of presumptive clinical importance. On the other hand, in two exceptional cases, antibodies which caused a hemolytic transfusion reaction were only detected by survival studies. For routine transfusion work, our results lend no support to the alleged advantage of extending antigen determination in donors and recipients.