Guidelines for microplate techniques in liquid‐phase blood grouping and antibody screening

Summary. This document is an introduction to microplate serology prepared at a time of very active research and development. Antibody detection techniques are expected to improve during the lifetime of this document. Approximately 25% of hospital blood banks are ABO and D grouping by microplate techniques. Antibody screening by microplate techniques is only being carried out by a small percentage of hospital blood banks but there is likely to be a change to antiglobulin tests by microplate procedures as soon as the methods have been thoroughly tested and approved. There are one or two weak links in these procedures which could give rise to serious errors:— (1) Antiglobulin reagents standardized for spin-tube tests may be subject to prozones in liquid phase microplate tests. Each new batch of antiglobulin reagent must be standardized by the microplate procedure in use to show that the reagent is at its optimum anti-IgG dilution for use. However dilutions greater than 1:2 may seriously compromise the anti-complement activity of the reagent. (2) Automated cell washers for microplates are currently under development and should be evaluated by replicate tests with weak anti-D sensitized cells. (3) The combination of diluted anti-IgG and poor washing procedures may lead to neutralization of anti-IgG and cause false negative errors. Future development for improved antiglobulin tests in microplates by a solid phase system is now well advanced and workers proposing to change to antibody screening by microplates are advised to bear this in mind. It is hoped that microplate methodology will move towards standardization based on national guidelines using standard antibody reagents for the validation of new microplate procedures.