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CASE REPORT article

Front. Transplant.
Sec. Transplantation Immunology
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frtra.2024.1463325

A Case of Immune Hemolytic Anemia after Liver Transplantation: Passenger Lymphocyte Syndrome Is the Culprit

Provisionally accepted
  • Intelligent Medical Laboratory, Wuhan Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Passenger lymphocyte syndrome (PLS) is most commonly observed after solid organ transplantation with minor ABO blood group incompatibility. It consists of a set of clinical symptoms brought on by the remaining lymphocytes of the donor organ developing antibodies against the recipient's antigens. Here, we describe a typical case of PLS in a type A+ recipient receiving a liver transplant from a type O+ donor. She suffered from jaundice, abnormally decreased hemoglobin level, and severe hemolytic anemia without bleeding. During hemolysis, we detected a positive direct antiglobulin test (DAT), and the thermal elution test revealed the presence of IgG anti-A antibodies in her serum. When immunosuppressive agents and blood transfusion were used together, cross-matched O+ washing red blood cells led to an expected outcome without side effects.

    Keywords: Immune hemolytic anemia, PLS, Post-orthotopic liver transplantation, ABO incompatibility, immunosuppressive therapy

    Received: 11 Jul 2024; Accepted: 13 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Qianzhe Zhao, Intelligent Medical Laboratory, Wuhan Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.