Problems of donor compatibility in a patient with sensitization to an alternate allelic variant of a 'self' HLA specificity

UK standards of deceased donor HLA typing and arrangements for reporting of recipient HLA antibody specificity can create a risk for ‘unexpected positive’ crossmatch that it is within the recipient centre's ability to avoid if high-confidence serum screening methods are in place. The case reported details investigations following an unexpected positive crossmatch due to an antibody directed against an allelic variant of a ‘self’ HLA specificity.