Abstract
Classic serological testing is based on red blood cell (RBC) agglutination using antisera. This chapter provides a historical perspective of different types of serological reagents and their pros and cons of being used to determine red blood cell antigens. Improvement in robotic and optical technology made automation possible to measure agglutination but certain limitations are still set by the reagent, for example, availability of the antisera is limited by getting sufficiently potent antibodies, the limited source of uncommon specificities, false positives from immunoglobulin coated cells, and recent transfusions. DNA testing on the other hand is not limited by immunoglobulin coating of the red blood cells, by the presence of recently transfused cells, or by the limited antisera, but it has its own challenge of altered expression of antigens due to variant alleles.
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Moulds, J.J. (2011). An Overview of the Classic Serological Methods: Limitations and Benefits of Serology and DNA Testing. In: Ness, P., Sloan, S., Moulds, J. (eds) BeadChip Molecular Immunohematology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7512-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7512-6_1
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