Blood group distribution and its relationship with bleeding time and clotting time

Abstract

Background: Blood group plays a vital role in the field of transfusion medicine. The relationship between bleeding time, clotting time, and blood group is important in certain clinical conditions such as epistaxis, surgery, and thrombosis. Researchers have shown that epistaxis is more often encountered in patients having blood group O probably due to lower expression of von Willebrand factor, and elevated levels are a risk factor for thrombosis. Thus, earlier studies found prolonged bleeding and clotting time in individuals with O blood group. Aims and Objectives: The objective of the study was to assess the relationship between bleeding time and clotting time among various blood groups and to identify any gender difference among the same. Materials and Methods: Our study included 150 MBBS students in the age group of 17–20 years. The blood grouping was carried out with the standard antisera, and bleeding time and clotting time were estimated by Duke method and capillary tube method respectively. Finally, bleeding time and clotting time of different blood groups were compared and statistical analysis was carried out. Results: Blood group B (40.7%) was the most common blood group in both genders followed by O (27.3%), A (20.7%), and AB (11.3%). Bleeding time was found to be prolonged >4 min in maximum number of group O (22%) followed by group B (18%), group AB (5.9%), and group A (3.2%) but the difference was statistically insignificant (p = 0.509). Similarly clotting time was >6 min in group B (14.8%) followed by group O (14.6%), group AB (11.76%), and group A (9.7%) but the difference was statistically insignificant (p = 0.885). Gender-wise bleeding time was more prolonged in females (15.7%) than males (13.1%) but the difference was statistically insignificant (p = 0.236), similarly clotting time too was prolonged more in females (16.9%) than males (9.8%) but again the difference was statistically insignificant (p = 0.662). Conclusions: In our study, blood group B predominated followed by O, A, and AB. Bleeding time was prolonged >4 min in blood group O followed by B, AB, and A whereas clotting time was prolonged >6 min in blood group B followed by O, AB, and A. Gender-wise bleeding and clotting time were higher in females than males.