Antibody screening and identification in voluntary blood donors – Need of the hour

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Although unexpected antibody screening is mandatory according to the Food and Drug Administration and National Blood Policy, the prevalence of irregular red cell antibody and its specificities are not much reported in the donor population of western India. The objective of this study is to find the prevalence of unexpected antibodies in healthy blood donor population of western India. Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted in one of the largest stand-alone blood centers in western India. Data were retrieved from the Integrated Blood Bank Management System (powered by the blood center located in Ahmedabad) software. The data were analyzed for a period of 24 months, from March 1, 2019, to March 31, 2021. Unexpected antibody screening of all voluntary healthy blood donors was performed with fully automated blood grouping equipment Immucor NEO and Diagast EVO using commercial Capture-R Ready Indicator Red Cells (Immucor, USA) and Hemascreen Pool (Diagast, France). Further antibody identification was performed with 11 cell panels. Results: A total of 53,724 volunteer blood donors donated at our blood center during the study period comprised 51,185 (95.27%) male donors and 2539 (4.72%) female donors. A total of 25 (0.046%) donors showed the presence of unexpected antibodies. Most frequent alloantibodies were anti-M (n = 4, 16%) and multiple antibody (n = 4, 16%). Conclusion: Implementation of unexpected antibody screening in all the healthy blood donors routinely and identification of antibodies in antibody screen-positive donors helped us to understand the prevalence of antibodies in our region and its importance in providing compatible blood components which are devoid of irregular antibodies and to avoid delayed transfusion reactions.