The primary concern of the blood bank technologist when working up a sample that contains a warm-reactive autoantibody is the possible presence of an alloantibody. An alloantibody can be masked by an autoantibody, making detection and identification of the alloantibody difficult.
Alloantibodies must be identified in order to select appropriate red blood cells for transfusion. Two types of adsorption techniques can be used to remove free autoantibody from the plasma/serum:
- Autoadsorption
- Allogeneic adsorption
