A AND B SUBSTANCES AS A CAUSE OF REACTIONS FOLLOWING HUMAN PLASMA TRANSFUSIONS

Abstract

The use of plasma and serum in the treatment of shock has become widespread, since it offers advantages over whole blood in that both plasma and serum are more easily stored, transported and administered. Many workers¹ have stated that plasma, in reasonable quantities (arbitrarily set at 500 cc. or less) may be administered safely regardless of the blood group. They have reasoned that the isoantibodies in the transfused fluid would be diluted by the recipient's blood beyond the point at which it would agglutinate the recipient's cells. On the other hand, others² have emphasized the role of these same antibodies in causing transfusion reactions and have urged that either compatible plasmas be used or pooling be employed to decrease the titer of the antibodies. Despite the theoretical possibility that isoantibodies may cause reactions, there is no sound experimental evidence indicating that this is true for plasma. What evidence