Anti-JK-a Antibody in a Case of SLE Patient with Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Infection.

A 58 year old lady presented with high grade fever, pallor, abdominal pain, loss of appetite and swelling of legs. She was subsequently diagnosed with SLE along with infection of Plasmodium falciparum malaria. She was clinically pale and advised for two units of packed red cell transfusion. One of the two units was incompatible, so only one unit was issued. Subsequently, DAT and auto control were positive. Later antibody specificity was identified, which came out to be anti JK-a. Because of recent transfusion 2 weeks back, her antigenic phenotype could not be elicited. Though we could not make out whether this antibody was the result of pregnancy or transfusion induced allo anti-JK-a or SLE induced auto anti JK-a, this antibody is highly clinically significant from transfusion point of view.