Abstract
Background: The aim of the study is to estimate the prevalence and specificity of red blood cell alloantibody among haemato-oncologic patients and to correlate the association of antibody development with other factors such as age, gender, race, number of packed red blood cell (RBCs) transfused and diagnosis. Materials and Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in Transfusion Medicine Unit, HUSM. Clinical and serological data of 216 haemato-oncologic patients who who received blood transfusions were collected and analysed. The blood samples were subjected to the standard immunohematological procedure for RBC antibody screening and identification using reagents of Diamed-ID Gel microtyping system Results: RBC alloimmunization rate among haemato-oncologic patients was 3.2%. Red cell antibodies were detected in seven patients. Four patients developed single antibody, while three develop multiple antibodies. However, we noted all seven patients were Malay with lymphoproliferative disease and majorities were adult male (71.4%) patients. Conclusions: The prevalence of RBC alloimmunization in post transfusion haemato-oncology patients was low despite of multiple transfusions and it is comparable with other diseases, which required multiple transfusions. Therefore, it is important to prioritize the extended antigen matching to patients that will be most benefit.
Highlights
The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence and specificity of red blood cell alloantibody among haemato-oncologic patients and to correlate the association of antibody development with other factors such as age, gender, race, number of packed red blood cell (RBCs) transfused and diagnosis
Alloimmunization to minor RBC antigens is a significant complication of transfusion therapy in haemato-oncology patients that leads to increased risk of transfusion reactions and limits the number of compatible packed RBC available, results in restricting clinician’s ability to safely transfuse packed RBCs in many situations
A total of 216 haemato-oncology patients (119 males and 97 females, age ranges 186 years and majority were adults) who received packed RBCs were included in the study
Summary
The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence and specificity of red blood cell alloantibody among haemato-oncologic patients and to correlate the association of antibody development with other factors such as age, gender, race, number of packed red blood cell (RBCs) transfused and diagnosis. Alloimmunization to minor RBC antigens is a significant complication of transfusion therapy in haemato-oncology patients that leads to increased risk of transfusion reactions and limits the number of compatible packed RBC available, results in restricting clinician’s ability to safely transfuse packed RBCs in many situations. Because of the large number of polymorphic antigens and the large number of epitopes on each antigen, every packed RBCs transfusion will introduce many foreign alloantigen.[2] Tormey and Stack’s reported that the immunogenicity is dependent on few factors; number of antibodies with specificity, probability of exposure (patient being antigen negative and donor being antigen positive) and persistence of antibody[3]
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