Negative on basic crossmatch, positive on flow crossmatch

[dave]

I'm new to this forum.  I am planning to donate a kidney to my Dad.  I've been "cleared" to donate, and my Dad's been "cleared" as a recipient, but there's a possible hitch.  One of the last screening tests, a "flow cytology", flagged a possible positive crossmatch for HLA antibodies.  The basic crossmatch test was negative, but apparently the flow cytology is a more sensitive test.  The hospital is running additional blood tests, and I should know more in a week or so.  In the mean time, does anyone have experience with this kind of "mixed" crossmatch result?  The uncertainty is making my Dad and I a little anxious.

[Fr Pat]

     Dear Dave,
As they have learned more and more over the years about transplants and the danger of rejection, they are able to "fine tune' the matching process better than they used to, in order to maximize the chances of long-term success. So sometimes there can be "border-line"  decisons when there MIGHT be a greater danger of rejection.
     But keep in mind also that IF you are unable to donate to him the National Kidney registry (www.kidneyregistry.org) can help arrange a "swap" with another family in a similar situation as their data base is now quite large.
     Please let us know how things work out.
                     best wishes,
                          Fr. Pat

[Dirty Rocker]

Dave,

After my recipient and I had been cleared for surgery and approved by committee, we had a similar hitch in the process. The immunologist was doing a final review of our test results (before the final pre-op crossmatch) and found a possible positive crossmatch. We had to do further testing as well. We were just terrified that we would have a positive crossmatch, but everything worked out fine. The results came in 4 days before we were scheduled for surgery that everything was okay. Like Fr Pat said, the process has become more and more advanced over the years, and they want the best possible outcome for you and your recipient. It is entirely possible that this next round of tests will turn out to be precautionary and you'll both be focusing on recovery before you know it!

Best of luck on your journey!

-Rocker

[dave]

Thanks to Fr. Pat and Dirty Rocker for the thoughtful responses!  To update, they reran the flow crossmatch test last week with a new sample of my blood, and it was negative.  They also reran the old sample, and it came back negative.  So they are calling the original flow positive a "fluke", which I take to be a false positive.  They will rerun the test one more time two weeks before surgery, but at this point, the procedure looks like a go.  I feel excited, relieved, and slightly scared all at the same time.

[Dirty Rocker]

Dave,

Congrats on the negative cxm! If you weren't feeling all of those things, you wouldn't be human. My surgery was less than a month ago, so I vividly remember feeling all of those same things. For me, I got more and more excited leading up to the surgery date, and the morning of was actually a lot of fun for us, even through the nervousness and anxiety.

Have they scheduled your surgery yet?

-Rocker