Objective: To assess the prevalence of the anti-red blood cell antibodies in the donor population of Delhi.
Methods: This prospective study was conducted in Regional Blood Transfusion Centre (RBTC), Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) and associated hospitals from March 2010 to March 2011. Antibody screening of all donor serum/plasma was performed as routine immunohaematological procedure. Any positive sera were further investigated to identify the specificity of irregular erythrocyte antibody by commercially available red cell panel (ID-Dia Panel, Diamed-ID Microtyping System). The titres and thermal amplitude of the identified antibodies were evaluated.
Results: A total of 7756 donors were screened, of which 7648 donors were males (98.6%) and 108 were females (1.4%). The maximum number of donors belonged to age group of 26-30 years. A total of four donors showed presence of alloantibodies in their serum (0.05%). On antibody identification, two of them were anti-C, one was anti-Lewis(a) antibody and one was autoantibody.
Discussion: This study was conducted to highlight the significance of detecting irregular erythrocyte antibodies in healthy donors.