Red-Cell Antibodies in Acquired Hemolytic Anemia with Negative Antiglobulin Serum Tests

Abstract

Of eight patients with acquired immunohemolytic anemia, six had persistently negative and two reversibly negative direct antiglobulin tests (Coombs tests). In five of the six, the red cells were shown by a complement-fixing antibody consumption technic to have abnormal amounts of γG globulin on their surfaces, ranging from 70 to 434 molecules per red cell. The two whose red cells gave reversible direct antiglobulin tests were found to have 160 and 700 molecules of γG per red cell respectively.