Abstract
Summary
Correlations between age and naturally occurring anti-A and anti-B antibodies were determined in a comparative study carried out on blood samples from 378 Bellevue Hospital patients ranging in age from 15 to 98 yr. Of this total, 90 persons were 70 or more years of age. Decrements in anti-A and anti-B antibody titers were correlated with increasing age. Discrepancies between direct and reverse techniques for ABO typing could be accounted for by loss of anti-A and anti-B immunoglobulin in senescent persons. Such losses will result in a failure of performance of reverse ABO typing which depends upon the presence of circulating anti-A and anti-B antibodies. In these circumstances, confirmation of ABO type may be achieved by repeating the direct or red cell type using an alternate source of reagent anti-A and anti-B typing sera.
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