diagnosis
Last reviewed 05/2021
- Hamm's test or acid-haemolysis test
- sucrose haemolysis test or sugar water test:
- a medium of low ionic strength, e.g. isotonic sucrose is used to aggregate serum globulins onto the surface of red cells
- this activates complement which then lyses PNH red cells
- the sucrose haemolysis test is more sensitive but less specific than the Ham test and best used as a screen
- immunophenotype analysis for deficient antigen expression:
- CD59 for red cells and platelets
- CD67 for granulocytes
- CD14 for monocytes
- CD24 for B cells