ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The use of automated techniques reduces the impact of human errors in blood banking and it improves the standardization and the quality of the achieved results. Erythrocyte Magnetized Technology (EMT) is now being widely used due to its simplicity and efficiency for detecting alloantibody. We evaluated the antibody screening test of the QWALYS-3 (DIAGAST, Loos Cedex, France). METHODS: The evaluation focused on antibody screening using the QWALYS-3 as compared to the standard manual tube method and the Ortho BioVue system in clinical samples (n=100) and frozen stored samples (n=64), which had RBC alloantibody. RESULTS: Using the manual tube method, the sensitivity of antibody screening was 100% by the QWALYS-3 and 42.8% by the Ortho BioVue in the clinical samples (n=7) and 2 results were discrepant by the QWALYS-3 for negative samples. For the known antibodies from the frozen stored samples (n=64) this correspondence rate amounted to 93.7% (n=60). CONCLUSION: The QWALYS-3 system displayed a good match rate with the Ortho BioVue system (92%). It also showed reliable results for the general accuracy when compared to the manual method (concordance rate: 98%). The QWALYS-3 system will facilitate the automation of routine antibody screening with high reliability, sensitivity and specificity compared to the standard manual methods.