A METHOD OF TESTING A CELL SAMPLE

摘要

The present invention measures agglutination using a process which is capabl e of testing how tightly agglutinated cells are bonded by measuring how much force is required to separate them. By causing red cel ls which are approximately biconcave discs to sphere, the effective surface area available for bonding diminishes. Sphering a cell increases the space between antigen binding sites and increases the mean distance across which bonding occurs. As the surface area available for bonding between cells decreases as cells sphere they lose bonding strength, thus allowing clumped cells to separate. By recording the inducing pressure and the number of cells (or quantities related to it) as they change with respect to the inducing pressure, agglutination c an be detected, quantified and monitored. This provides a simple but effective test for blood grouping and cross-matching by introducing an appropriate source of antibodies and detecting whether or not agglutination occurs.