Work

Low-level HLA antibodies do not predict platelet transfusion failure in TRAP study participants

Year: 2013

Type: article

Abstract: In the Trial to Reduce Alloimmunization to Platelets (TRAP) study, 101 of 530 participants became refractory to platelet transfusions without evidence of HLA or human platelet antigen (HPA) antibodies. We used a more sensitive bead-based assay to detect and quantify HLA antibodies and a qualitative solid-phase enzyme-linked immunosorbet assay for HPA to determine whether low-level antibodies could predict refractoriness in longitudinal panels from 170 lymphocytotoxicity assay (LCA)(-) and 20 LCA(+) TRAP participants. All TRAP recipients who previously tested LCA(+) were HLA antibody(+), using the bead-based system. Levels of HLA or HPA antibodies did not predict refractoriness among LCA(-) recipients, although higher levels of HLA antibodies were associated with refractoriness among LCA(+) recipients. These data demonstrate that weak to moderate HLA antibody levels detectable by modern binding assays are not associated with platelet refractoriness.

Source: Blood

DOI: 10.1182/blood-2012-12-472779