A 35-year-old patient with blood group AB developed hemolysis 1 week after receiving a blood group B cadaveric kidney transplant. The patient's serum was shown to contain anti-A antibody, which was likely to have been derived from passenger lymphocytes transplanted concurrently with the graft. The alloimmune hemolysis subsided spontaneously without treatment. The present case underscores the potential complication of ABO blood group-compatible but nonidentical organ transplantation. Clinical vigilance is important to differentiate from other more sinister causes of posttransplant hemolysis.
Copyright 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.