Prevalence of irregular antibodies in blood donors in a tertiary care hospital- a one year study

Dr Irm Yasmeen; Dr Zakir Ahmad Bhat; Dr Javaid Rasool

Volume : IX, Issue : I, January - 2020

Prevalence of irregular antibodies in blood donors in a tertiary care hospital- a one year study

Dr Irm Yasmeen, Dr Zakir Ahmad Bhat, Dr Javaid Rasool

Abstract :

Introduction: Most of the irregular antibodies in daily transfusion practices are directed towards the Rh ( D,C,E,c,e), Kell (K), Fy (Fya,Fyb), Jk (Jka, Jkb) and MNS (M,N,S,s) blood group systems. Knowledge about the prevalance of these red cell antibodies among blood donors is very important to minimize the risk of alloimmunization. Aims and Objectives: The study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of irregular antibodies among blood donors. Material and methods: This was a prospective study carried out over a period of one year with effect from June 2013 to June 2014 in the Department of Blood Transfusion and Immunohaematology of Sher-e- Kashmir Institute of Medical Science. It comprised of voluntary and replacement donors of SKIMS Hospital blood bank who donated blood during the above mentioned period. Donors who fulfill inclusion criteria specified by Departmental SOPs were selected and written informed consent was taken from them. Ethical clearance was obtained from institutional ethical committee. Results: A total of 11700 blood samples from the donors of all blood groups were typed for the presence of irregular antibodies. The detection was done by indirect coomb�s test by conventional tube technique. This study included 11,466 (98%) males and 234 (2%) females. A total of 28 (0.24%) donors were tested positive for irregular antibodies. Among these 26(92.8%) were males and 2(7.14%) were females. Maximum blood donors who had irregular antibodies were in the age group of 18-30 years. O positive blood group donors (28.5%) have more irregular antibodies followed by B positive(25%), A positive (21.4%), AB positive(7.14%), A negative(7.14%), O negative(3.57%), B negative (3.57%) and AB negative (3.57%). Conclusion: Antibody screening and identification combined with extended phenotyping of blood can help in creating donor data bank and providing proper antigen compatible blood for patients with multiple alloantibodies and also reduce the risk of RBC antigen alloimmunization along with their complications like hemolytic transfusion reactions, hemolytic disease of fetus and newborn.