A Pilot Project for Expansion of the External Quality Assessment Program in Transfusion Medicine: Extended Antigen Typing

Abstract

Background: As the need for expansion of the external quality assessment (EQA) scheme for transfusion medicine in Korea has increased, we performed a pilot project of extended antigen typing for Lewis, Duffy, and Kidd antigens. Methods: We sent EQA materials to participant laboratories for Lewis, Duffy, and Kidd antigen typing in October 2020. Participants were asked to enter the agglutination titers, methodologies, and results of Lewis, Duffy, and Kidd antigen typing on the Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service website. Results: For Lewis antigen typing, the intended result was Le(a?b?); 20 participants (95.2%) responded as Le(a?b?), and only one (4.8%) responded as Le(a?b+). For the Duffy antigen typing test, the intended result was Fy(a+b?), and all 20 participants (100%) responded as Fy(a+b?). For the Kidd antigen typing test, the intended result was Jk(a+b+), and all 22 participants (100%) responded as Jk(a+b+). Conclusions: As the pilot project was successfully executed, extended antigen typing for Lewis, Duffy, and Kidd antigens has been included in the Korean Association of External Quality Assessment Service on transfusion medicine since 2021.