Report on the Sixth International Society of Blood Transfusion Platelet Serology Workshop

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Abstract
Background: The Sixth International Society of Blood Transfusion Platelet Serology Workshop continued studies to identify methods to detect platelet‐specific antigens and antibodies.Study Design and Methods: The study was designed to meet three goals. The first was the establishment of antigen‐typed platelet panels and determination of the correlation between serologic and DNA typing of platelet‐specific antigens. The second goal was the determination of the proficiency of detecting platelet‐specific antibodies by laboratory and by technique. The third goal was the identification of any platelet‐specific antibodies present in uncharacterized (unknown) antisera.Results: For platelet‐antigen typing, concordance between serologic testing and DNA techniques was 93 percent for oligonucleotide typing and 92 percent for allele‐specific restriction site analysis. Agreement between these two was 98 percent. Individual laboratories correctly identified the antibodies contained in coded sera 79 +/− 17 percent of the time. The expected results were obtained from the modified antigen‐capture enzyme‐ linked immunosorbent assay in 75 +/− 46 percent of instances, from the monoclonal antibody‐specific immobilization of platelet antigens assay in 72 +/− 24 percent of instances, from the mixed passive hemagglutination assay in 71 +/− 13 percent, from radioimmunoprecipitation procedures in 67 +/− 47 percent, and from Western blot 34 +/− 40 percent. Seven (54%) of 13 antisera of unknown specificity were determined to contain clearly identifiable platelet‐ specific alloantibodies.Conclusion: Concordant results were achieved by using either serologic or DNA techniques to identify platelet‐ specific antigens. Except for the significantly lower results found with Western blotting, all other platelet‐specific antibody assays were comparable. Established serologic laboratories can identify and characterize plate‐specific antibodies.