Identification of alloantibodies associated with an autoantibody: the evaluation of two quality control exercises in French blood transfusion centers

The French Blood Transfusion Society working group Immunohaematology and th e French Blood Transfusion Center of Lille performed two quality control ex ercises - 96-01 and 97-02 - in order to evaluate identification performance s of alloantibodies associated with an autoantibody recognizing a high freq uency antigen. Concerning control 96-01, 83 (75%) of the 110 blood transfus ion centers participating at this exercise sent results. The alloantibody s creening was correct for 78 of them (94%). Sixty-one (78%) blood transfusio n centers correctly identified the specificities (anti-RH1 + anti-FYl). Con cerning control 97-02, 82 (94%) of the 87 blood transfusion centers partici pating in this exercise sent results. The alloantibody screening was correc t for 69 (88%) of them. Fifty-three blood transfusion centers (77%) correct ly identified the specificities (anti-RH3 + anti-FYl). These exercises allo wed us to confirm the main procedures used in routine for national scale te sting. The analysis of the results has underlined the importance of these t ests for assessing the quality of these examinations, and highlighted the m eans to be carried out in order to improve them. (C) 1998 Elsevier, Paris.