Introduction and aim of the study - Administration of compatible blood is a prerequisite to prevent fatal transfusion reactions in cats. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of a rapid immunochromatographic test for feline blood typing, comparing the results with the gold standard technique of tube agglutination.
Materials and methods - Fifty blood samples in EDTA were typed in duplicate by tube agglutination and by an immunochromatographic technique. Immunochromatography was also used to type diluted and concentrated blood samples, samples anticoagulated with CPDA, and samples stored at room temperature, -20°C and at 4-6°C.
Results - The tube technique typed 36 samples as group A, 9 as group B and 5 as group AB. Results were identical with the two methods in 45/50 samples with good concordance. The sensitivity and specificity of the immunochromatographic technique were respectively 97.2% and 71.4% for group A, 100% and 100% for group B, 20% and 97.7% for group AB. Concordance was good for group A, excellent for group B and poor for group AB. Immunochromatography was able to correctly type diluted and concentrated blood samples, samples anticoagulated with CPDA, and samples stored at room temperature for up to 7 days and at 4-6°C for up to 4 weeks.
Discussion - Immunochromatography is able to identify, with high sensitivity and specificity, both type A and type B blood groups, which are the most problematic in transfusion medicine. Using immunochromatography cats with the rare AB group are generally mistakenly typed as group A.