[Irregular antibodies. A comparative study of 2 series of 20,000 subjects: one with a conventional identification test, the other with gel-test].

The results of irregular antibody screening in two successive series of 21485 and 19819 individuals were retrospectively analysed. All the irregular antibody screenings were performed with an autoanalyser according to Rosenfield and Lalezary [1, 2] but red cell antibody identification tests were not the same: conventional manual tests in the first series and gel-test Diamed in the second one. In spite of a bigger number of identification tests performed in the second series, the percentage of patients with irregular antibodies was approximately the same (2.27% and 2.22%) in each series. Analysis of identified specificities shows in the second series the increase of immune antibodies (+ 42.3%) especially antibodies with anti-Rh specificity and the decline of natural antibodies (- 28.9%) essentially of anti-Lewis b and P1 antibodies. The sensitivity of both the gel-test and the autoanalyser screening for identification of immune antibodies are more or less the same. The sensitivity of gel-test probably gives a safer transfusion but increases the workload of both the laboratory and the blood bank delivery service.