Antibody screening and identification in donors and general patients at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Western India

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of the blood transfusion service should be to provide effective blood and blood components, which are as safe as possible and adequate to meet patient's need. To achieve safe blood transfusion practice, many blood transfusion center in India follow routine type and screen protocol for all patient's and donor's blood samples to detect unexpected alloantibodies. The present study is aimed at assessing the frequency and type of unexpected red cell alloantibodies in general patient population and donors at a tertiary care teaching hospital in western India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this prospective study, samples of patients as well as blood donors were processed for ABO and Rh “D” grouping as well as antibody screening with three cell screening panel on fully automated immunohematology analyzer. Positive sample in three cell screening panel was further evaluated for identification of specific alloantibody with eleven cell identification panel by column agglutination technique. Results were recorded, and data were analyzed to calculate the frequency of unexpected alloantibody. RESULTS: A total of 74,214 patient samples and 80,173 donor samples were processed for type and screen. Out of which, 512 patients and 11 donors were identified with alloantibody. Most common alloantibody found in the present study is anti-D (0.075%), followed by anti-E (0.041%), anti-c (0.021%), anti-K (0.0205%) in Rh and Kell blood group system. CONCLUSION: Antibody screening and identification of specific alloantibody help in identifying most appropriate blood unit that lacks the corresponding antigen and prevent alloimmunization.