Global Journal of Transfusion Medicine (Jan 2019)

Incidence and frequency of various red blood cell antibodies and the experience of providing antigen-negative transfusion support for patients at a tertiary care super specialty hospital

  • Ruhi Mehra,
  • Minal Rane,
  • Ujwala D'Mello,
  • Rajesh B Sawant

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/GJTM.GJTM_52_19
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 2
pp. 214 – 218

Abstract

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Introduction: The presence of red blood cell (RBC) auto and/or alloantibodies can pose a serious challenge of finding transfusion support for such patients. Aim and Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the frequency and type of unexpected RBC antibodies in the patient population of a tertiary care super specialty hospital and analyze the transfusion support and its effectiveness in these patients. Methodology: This was a retrospective cross sectional study based on data contained in all blood requests, received over a period of 39 months inclusive of demographic,laboratory and clinical variables. Results: Among the 25,338 patients screened, 122 (0.48%) had alloantibodies and 19 (0.07%) had autoantibodies. Of the 141 patients with atypical antibodies, 109 (77.30%) were female and 32 (22.69%) were male. Antibodies directed against the antigens from various blood group systems were as follows: Rh – 54.5%, MNS – 21.8%, and Lewis – 13.6%. Anti-D (32.8%), Anti-M (16.4%), and Anti-E (10.9%) were the most prevalent. Multiple alloantibodies were seen in 2 (1.41%) cases and autoantibodies coexisting with an alloantibody in 9 (6.38%) cases. Discussion: RBC alloimmunization rate is lower (0.41%) in our hospital in comparison with published reports. Higher alloimmunization in female patients in the age group of 20–40 years mainly associated with a history of pregnancy and comparatively lower rate in males and strongly associated with a history of transfusion in the age group of 40–60 years has been reported in literature. Conclusion: RBC alloimmunization rate (0.55%) in general patients treated in our hospital is lower as compared to other reported rates in our country. The provision of RBC phenotype-matched (Rh and Kell) blood for patients likely to get multiple transfusions right from the beginning may reduce the alloimmunization rates further.

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