Retrospective evaluation of the epidemiological data of the coombs positive cases

Introduction and aim: Coombs tests are mainly used in hematology, transfusion medicine, or organ transplantation. Direct coombs positivity does not always support hemolysis. It was aimed to categorize the direct and / or indirect Coombs positivity of patients which were studied for various reasons at the Dokuz Eylul University Hospital Blood Bank according to their etiology, and to clarify association with hemolytic anemia or other diseases. Material and Method: This descriptive study concerns about of etiology of 485 patients whose Coombs tests were positive between January 2015- December 2018, who were followed-up in DEUTF Internal Medicine Department. Results: Between 244 women (50.3%) and 241 (49.7%) men, the female / male ratio was found to be 1/1. The mean age was 60.85 (19-94) and the median age was 64 ± 16.99. At the end of follow-up period of the median 48 months (  28.24 months), 278 (57.3%) patients were alive, while 207 (42.7%) were deceased. Median survival for all patients was 30 ± 16.74 months (1-58). It was observed that among these patients, coombs positivity due to solid tumors (15.2%), MDS (10%) and autoimmune hemolytic anemia (8.4%) were dominant findings. Apart from these, many immune or nonimmune causes have been identified. Conclusion: Although Coombs positivity is a high predictive test for AIHA, it should be kept in mind that it can be positive in many cases such as major solid tumors, MDS and rheumatological diseases. When evaluating this positivity, it is important to establish a correlation with the patient's clinic. Key words: Direct anti-globulin test, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, Coombs test