5 February 2026 (Thursday) - Thermal Amplitude and anti-A1

Here’s a rather interesting dissertation on anti-A₁.

 

I first heard about anti-A₁ in 1982 when I was working at the (now demolished) Royal East Sussex Hospital. But I never saw an example of it until I left the place and worked somewhere else.

That “somewhere else” had more cases of anti-A1 that my gran ever had cups of tea. At least one a day… until there was a huge laboratory refurbishment and re-build. The cases of anti-A1 stopped overnight, and in twenty more years there I never saw another case. Nor did I see any in the place where I worked from 2011 to 2017, nor in the place where I’ve worked ever since.

So what was going on in the late 1980s?

 

Looking back we used to do blood groups in tubes and all the testing done at room temperature was left on the drafty windowsills to incubate. Where it was cold.

And that’s where the term “thermal amplitude” comes into play. The week before the laboratory refurbishment I had a case of anti P₁ which the boss couldn’t detect because I was incubating my room temperature tubes on the drafty windowsill whereas he was doing his on the bench. We got out the thermometer…  the bench was just under 20^oC, the windowsill was 6^oC.