Kleihauer testing Need not be abandoned

For the 1% of women who have a fetomaternal haemorrhage greater than 4 ml, standard practice could be supplemented by other methods, such as analysis by flow cytometry, in which the presence of Rh D positive cells rather than fetal haemoglobin can be examined. Inexperience with the technique and var...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ 1994-09, Vol.309 (6957), p.805-805
Main Authors: Love, E M, Shwe, K H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Female
Fetomaternal Transfusion - diagnosis
Flow cytometry
Humans
Immunoglobulins
Laboratories
Letter
Pregnancy
Quality control
Rh Isoimmunization - prevention & control
Rho(D) Immune Globulin - therapeutic use
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:For the 1% of women who have a fetomaternal haemorrhage greater than 4 ml, standard practice could be supplemented by other methods, such as analysis by flow cytometry, in which the presence of Rh D positive cells rather than fetal haemoglobin can be examined. Inexperience with the technique and variable staining may sometimes lead to normal small lymphocytes mistakenly being counted as cells containing fetal haemoglobin. Since our paper on Kleihauer testing was published 2 it has been drawn to our attention that, while a national quality assurance scheme for Kleihauer testing in the United Kingdom is being planned, a scheme has existed in Scotland for many years.\n With this test it should be possible to screen large numbers of maternal blood samples for small fetomaternal haemorrhage.
ISSN:0959-8138
1468-5833
DOI:10.1136/bmj.309.6957.805