cytotoxic antibody screen

Clinical significance

• identifies patient as an immune responder, potentially capable of transplantation rejection
• specificity of reactivity indicates antigen(s) to be avoided in any prospective donor or indicates the development of response to donor antigens mismatched to recipient at time of transplantation.

Methods

• complement Dependent Lymphocytotoxicity and ELISA

Procedure

• measures degree of reactivity of tested serum in terms of
  • % of cells killed
  • average strength of serum reactivity in terms of graded reactions
  • specificity of serum reactivity in terms of the HLA antigens shared in common by those cells killed by the serum

More general terms

• tissue typing
• serology