Effect of sample storage on blood crossmatching in horses.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Blood samples banked for up to 1 month are typically used to perform pretransfusion testing in humans and small animals, but this has not been validated using blood from horses. HYPOTHESIS: Compatibility of equine blood samples is repeatable using fresh samples, and reproducible using donor blood samples stored for up to 4 weeks. ANIMALS: Six healthy adult horses. METHODS: Randomized, blinded experimental study. Immunologic compatibility of the blood of all horses was assessed using a major and minor saline agglutination and hemolysin crossmatch using blood samples refrigerated for 0-4 weeks and fresh blood from the same horses. Crossmatch results were scored and then compared to..