Frequency of Common Rh Antigens among Volunteer Blood Donors; A Single Centre Study

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to ascertain the prevalence of common Rh antigens among willing blood donors.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study of 275 subjects was conducted at the department of Hematology Chughtai Institute of Pathology, Lahore region of Punjab, Pakistan from January 2019 to June 2019. Rh antigen expression was performed on the selected blood samples using specific monoclonal antisera (BIO-RAD) by standard tube technique. Agglutination reactions were graded from 0 to 4+, and results were recorded using Fisher-Race terminology.

Results: Among Rh antigens, Rh-e was the most common antigen (98.54%), followed by out of 275 subjects, 248(94.20%) were Rh-D positive while the remaining 27(5.8%) were Rh-D negative. Out of 275 topics, 193 (70.20%) were Rh-C positive,131(47.70%) were Rh-c positive, 74(26.90 %) were Rh-E positive, and 271(98.54%) were Rh-e positive.

Conclusion: For the blood banks to effectively provide antigen-negative blood to patients who have acquired alloantibodies, more efforts must be concentrated on expanded Rh and other blood group antigen phenotyping and creating organizational databases.