If a DAT yields agglutination due to saline contaminated with bacteria, what is this referred to?

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Polyagglutination describes a situation where red cells react with many different sera because their surface antigens have been altered to reveal cryptic determinants. When the saline used in the Direct Antiglobulin Test is contaminated with bacteria, the bacterial enzymes modify the red cell surface, exposing these hidden antigenic sites. As a result, the red cells appear to agglutinate with a wide range of antibodies present in various sera, giving a broad, non-specific reaction pattern characteristic of polyagglutination.

Autoagglutination would come from autoantibodies coating the patient’s own red cells, not from reagent contamination. Panagglutination refers to broad reactivity in a test context but is a more general term; the specific mechanism here—enzyme-mediated exposure of cryptantigens due to bacterial contamination—defines polyagglutination.