A COMPARISION OF CONVENTIONAL TUBE METHOD AND COLUMN AGGLUTINATION TECHNOLOGY IN AN IMMUNOHEMATOLOGY LABORATORY

Abstract

Background: Rapid technological advancements in pretransfusion procedures in an immuno-hematological laboratory are a result of the increased focus on the quality and safety of blood products. Numerous automated pretransfusion testing platforms have been developed as a result of the inherent drawbacks of the gold standard conventional tube method. The invention of Column Agglutination Technology was the biggest advancement among these. Aim: 1. To compare the results of blood grouping and crossmatching by Conventional Tube Method and Column Agglutination Technology. 2. To statistically evaluate the results obtained between Column Agglutination Technology and Conventional Tube Technique in our immunohematology laboratory. Materials and Methods: The study was performed in blood bank of a tertiary hospital in Mangalore during the month of January,2022 in which 500 samples were subjected to blood grouping and cross matching. The data obtained was extensively studied. Sensitivity, specicity and statistical analysis were done by Fisher's exact test. Results: In comparative evaluation of CAT and CTT of 500 samples, there was concordance rate of 99.6% in blood grouping and concordance of 99.8% in crossmatching. In both the scenarios, the discordance was evaluated and found CATis superior to CTT. The most common blood group of both studies was 0 positive. Statistical analysis using Fisher's test proved statistically signicant difference between grouping and cross-matching via both tests with a p value of 0.000001 and 0.01 respectively. The sensitivity and specicity of both tests showed CAT to be superior with 100% sensitivity and 100% specicity while in CTT, the sensitivity was 100% with 66.6% specicity. Conclusion: The study establishes that CAT is more sensitive, specic, rapid, reliable procedure and is a better substitute of CTT in pretransfusion testing.