Background: Red blood cell (RBC) alloantibodies may be formed following exposure to RBC antigens. In most cases, the alloimmunization develops during pregnancy or from previous blood transfusions. The RBC antigens and their alloantibodies vary among different human populations and ethnic groups, and they do have a clinical significance for their adverse immunological reactions.
Aims: This study aimed at studying the prevalence of RBC alloantibodies at the Blood Transfusion Unit of Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II in Kota Bharu, Malaysia.
Patients and methods: A cross-sectional study was performed utilizing data obtained in the years 2007 and 2008. Data of antibody screening tests from 5719 patients were examined.
Results and discussion: The overall prevalence of alloimmunization was 65 (1.13%). The majority of these had a single alloantibody (76.9%), whereas the remaining 23.1% had multiple antibodies. The anti-E antibody comprised the most common alloantibody (24.6%) followed by the anti-Lewis (a) antibodies (18.5%) and the anti-M antibody (13.8%). There were more female recipients than males.
Conclusions: It was concluded that the findings of this work have been comparable with other published works, and that the main factors associated with alloantibody formation were multiple transfusions and pregnancies. The study also emphasizes the necessity for carrying out immunohematology studies prior to every blood transfusion especially in cases that require multiple transfusions for a long period of time such as in thalassemia patients.
Keywords: RBC antigens; alloantibodies; blood transfusion.