Granulocyte Transfusions

Greendyke and Banzhaf incorrectly cite us as having reported a case of acquired hemolytic anemia caused by auto-anti-Wra. In addition, the title of our paper’ is incorrectly cited in their bibliography. It must be pointed out that in the case we reported the causative antibody was auto-anti-Wrh not auto-anti-WP. In a subsequent study on 150 individuals with a positive direct antiglobulin test (87 with autoimmune hemolytic anemia, 33 with a positive DAT due to alpha-methyldopa therapy, and 30 “normal” donors with a positive DAT) we demonstrated that auto-anti-Wrh is common.2 In the 150 individuals we studied, 46 (3 1%) had made autoanti-Wrh, most often in conjunction with other autoantibodies of complex specificity. In those individuals who had made anti-dl ( 1 10 of the 150 studied) the incidence of auto-antiWrh, as revealed by adsorption studies, was 42 per cent. In tests on the 150 patients described, and on many hundreds of others, we have never seen an example of auto-anti-Wr”. To our knowledge, no other workers have ever found autoantibody of such a specificity although studies on thousands of individuals with a positive DAT have been reported.-Peter D . Issitt. F.I.M.L.S.. L.I.Biol.. M.R.C.Puth. , Director of Luborutories and Associate Professor in Reseurch Surgery. The Puul I . Hoxworth Blood Center, Cincinnati. O H , und Dennis Goldfinger. M . D . . Associute Pathologist und Director of the Blood Bunk, Cedurs-Sinai Medicirl Center. Lou Angeles. C A 90048.