Use of low ionic strength saline for crossmatching and antibody screening.

A totally revised crossmatching and antibody screening procedure has been designed using low ionic strength saline as the suspending medium for red cells in the saline and enzyme phases as well as the antiglobulin test. The replacement of Pasteur pipettes with precision samplers for all serum and red cell dispensing has resulted in improvement in the reproducibility and standardisation of technique. The major advantages are improved sensitivity, shortened incubation time, and simplicity of technical performance.