| Donath-Landsteiner cold autoantibody | An autoantibody of the IgG class responsible for paroxysmal cold haemoglobinuria; it is adsorbed to red cells only at temperatures of 20캜 or lower, causing the red cells to lyse in the presence of complement at higher temperatures; it has only slight agglutinating properties in spite of its marked lytic activity, and has a specificity within the blood group P; it is also occasionally present for short periods of time following measles and other infections, and formerly was frequently associated with syphilis. Synonym: cold haemolysin. (05 Mar 2000) |
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