The Coombs test is an eponym named after Dr. Robin Coombs (1921–2006), a British immunologist who developed the test in 1945, along with colleagues Arthur Mourant and Rob Race. The test is also called the antiglobulin test.
- Clinical Significance:
- It’s a test that detects antibodies or complement proteins bound to the surface of red blood cells (RBCs).
- Direct Coombs Test (Direct Antiglobulin Test – DAT):
- Detects antibodies or complement directly attached to a patient’s RBCs.
- Used to diagnose:
- Autoimmune hemolytic anemia
- Hemolytic disease of the newborn
- Hemolytic transfusion reactions
- Indirect Coombs Test (Indirect Antiglobulin Test – IAT):
- Detects free antibodies in the patient’s serum that could bind to donor RBCs.
- Used in:
- Pre-transfusion testing
- Prenatal antibody screening in Rh-negative mothers
- Origin of eponym:
- Named after Dr. Robin Coombs (1921–2006), a pioneering figure in immunohematology and immunopathology.
- Coombs was born in London in 1921.
- He received his education in South Africa and returned to Britain to study at the Royal Veterinary College at Edinburgh, qualifying in 1943.
- He worked at the Veterinary Research Centre at Weybridge on the serodiagnosis of glanders, a disease caused by Pfeifferela mallei, which produces a potentially fatal infection in horses and humans.
- He found that the most sensitive serum diagnostic test was the complement–dependent conglutination reaction.1
- He received his PhD from Cambridge University in 1947 and spent the rest of his career there.
- During the Second World War, he came into contact with Doctors Rob Race and Arthur Mourant, who were then working on the recently discovered Rh blood group system.
- They carried out joint experiments on a blocking or incomplete Rh antibody, and Coombs & Race published their first paper in 1945.
- According to Pamphilon and Scott:
Coombs realised, while having plenty of time to think, returning from London to Cambridge on a late-running, ill-lit, wartime train, that when these incomplete antibodies reacted with the red blood cells, they would become coated with anti-Rh immunoglobulin and that a further ‘bridging’ antibody directed against the globulin fraction of serum would then agglutinate the cells. This antiglobulin technique was to be extremely successful in detecting anti-Rh antibodies and Coombs’ name became known worldwide as the inventor of the antiglobulin test.
References:
Derwood H Pamphilon and Marion L Scott. Robin Coombs: his life and contribution to haematology and transfusion medicine. Br J Haematol. 2007 Jun;137(5):401-8.