Frequency of ABO blood group discrepancies among patients and donors: Their identification and resolution

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the frequency of common ABO discrepancies among patients and blood donors at Chughtai Institute of Pathology (CIP) and the measures taken to resolve them. Thus, enabling timely prevention of undesirable events during transfusion of blood components. Material and Methods: It was a Retrospective observational study analyzing disparity in routinely encountered ABO blood group tests at blood bank of Chughtai Institute of Pathology between Year July 2019 to June 2020. These were detected serologically in blood donors and patients, where discordant results of forward and reverse method of blood group or both were recorded and interpreted by agglutination viewer and microscopic analysis. Results: A total 20,401 blood groups were performed in blood bank of Chughtai Institute of Pathology, Lahore from the year July 2019 to June 2020. Both male and female patients were included for ABO blood group testing. The male to female ratio was 0.96:1 and age ranges from 6 months to 80 years. ABO blood group discrepancies were detected in 33 patients out of 20,401(0.161%). Most common type of discrepancy encountered was weaker reactions in forward group particularly A type blood group due to variable antigenic distribution on red cells Conclusion: It is essential to identify and resolve various blood group discrepancies to avoid acute hemolytic transfusion reactions.