Talk:Coombs test

This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Medicine Mid‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Medicine, which recommends that medicine-related articles follow the Manual of Style for medicine-related articles and that biomedical information in any article use high-quality medical sources. Please visit the project page for details or ask questions at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine.MedicineWikipedia:WikiProject MedicineTemplate:WikiProject Medicinemedicine articles Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Ideal sources for Wikipedia's health content are defined in the guideline Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine) and are typically review articles. Here are links to possibly useful sources of information about Coombs test. PubMed provides review articles from the past five years (limit to free review articles) The TRIP database provides clinical publications about evidence-based medicine. Other potential sources include: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and CDC

Click on the diagram to see enlarged view.

Please help to make this page better. Can you make additions or linked pages for any of the following?

Advanced aspects not covered (or not covered in detail)

Low ionic strength saline (LISS) incubation

Temperature of incubation

Cold and walm antibodies

IgG and IgM antibodies

Anti I and anti i

Monoclonal Coombs reagent

Serological titration

Transfusion serology

Blood grouping with LISS or with enzyme treated RBCs

A mnemonic has been suggested

A memory device to remember that the DAT tests the RBCs and is used to test infants for haemolytic disease of the newborn is: Rh Disease; R = RBCs, D = DAT.

Mnemonics are common in medicine - see Talk:Cranial_nerves. Any case, a reason is good if you remove something. Nephron 03:19, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I feel that the Coombs test is best remembered by understanding it, as is most of medicine.

I feel the way it was placed on the page confuses it with the actual explanation. I have put brackets around it, so that the page scans better. Snowman 15:29, 14 February 2006 (UTC).[reply]

I agree with you on understanding. That said, I think the naming is rather arbitrary: (1) the test is an eponym (2) indirect vs direct, I think, is a poor descriptor of the test (it is based on the process in the lab, as I understand it-- the indirect test being a two step process) as opposed to the components of the immune reaction. If it were up to me, I'd call the DAT test for antibody binding to RBCs and the IAT test for (serum) antibodies directed against RBCs... as that is how I understand them and think they ought to be thought of. Alternatively, the direct test could be thought of as a test for antibody mediated hemolysis ... the 'indirect' test as a test for blood compatibility. 'indirect Coombs' and 'direct Coombs' do not convey any of the above mentioned information... so memorization it is. Nephron 15:56, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]