Red blood cell‐bound C3d in selected hospital patients

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Abstract
A radioactive anti‐antiglobulin technique was used to measure C3d bound to the red blood cells of 227 hospitalized patients in 129 patients, with a wide variety of diseases, normal levels of RBC‐bound C3d were found. Seventy‐two patients had moderately elevated RBC‐bound C3d; they generally did not have autoimmune hemolytic anemia but had diseases in which complement is thought to be activated. Patients with markedly elevated RBC‐bound C3d (26 patients) usually had autoimmune hemolytic anemia with a positive antiglobulin test. Some patients with only moderately elevated levels of RBC‐bound C3d had autoimmune hemolytic anemia and a negative antiglobulin test in individual patients the level of RBC‐bound C3d correlated with both the severity of disease and the response to treatment. RBC‐bound C3b was detected in two patients with a very high level of RBC‐bound C3d. This study provides background data for assessing the significance of complement activation and fixation to RBC in health and disease.