Passive immune basophil activation test for the identification of allergic episodes from various adverse events elicited by haematopoietic cell transplantation: A pilot study.

Background And Objectives: Haematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) therapy tends to be associated with various complications including engraftment failure, regimen-related toxicities, and infectious diseases. In addition, HC infusion itself occasionally elicits adverse events (AEs), one of the most common AEs is an allergic reaction. As appropriate laboratory tests have not yet been established to distinguish allergy-mediated AEs from other complications, clinical responses for HCT-related AEs can only be nonspecific.

Possible Utility of the Basophil Activation Test for the Analysis of Mechanisms Involved in Allergic Transfusion Reactions.

Allergic transfusion reactions (ATRs) are the most common adverse reactions occurring during transfusion of blood components. Although most reactions are mild and involve cutaneous manifestations, severe ATRs including life-threatening anaphylaxis may also occur. The mechanisms of ATRs are largely unknown because they have not been well studied.

Clinical utility of a passive immune basophil activation test for the analysis of allergic transfusion reactions.

Background: In previous studies, we demonstrated that the basophil activation test, which is performed using patient blood and the supernatants from transfused blood components, was able to elucidate not only the causative relationship between allergic transfusion reactions and the transfusion but also the mechanisms behind allergic transfusion reactions. However, for a large number of allergic transfusion reactions, patients are in a state of myelosuppression, and the basophil activation test cannot be performed for these patients because there are insufficient numbers of peripheral blood basophils.

Study Design And Methods: To overcome this obstacle, we developed a passive immune basophil activation test, in which patient plasma and residually transfused blood are used as the patient's sources of immunoglobulin E and allergen, respectively, whereas healthy volunteer basophils serve as the responder cell source.