Prevalence of Irregular Red Cell Antibodies and Their Significance in Blood Transfusion and Antenatal Care

Abstract

Abstract. The antibodies encountered in random collectives of 55,350 recipients, 16,643 pregnant women, and 1,307 mothers of babies with hemolytic disease are listed. Antibody screening was performed in all specimens using the same technique (albumin‐antiglobulin test), a limited number of selected sera was investigated also by the auto‐analyzer. Different frequencies of the antibodies concerned were found in all groups. Anti‐Kell was detected in 10% of all antibodies found in recipients whereas the frequency was less than 0.5% among the antibodies encountered in pregnant women and mothers of babies with hemolytic disease. The relative antigenic potency of the antigens concerned was calculated by taking into account the frequencies of the antibodies and the antigen exposure probability derived from the well‐known gene frequencies. Similar to the antibody frequencies, the relative antigenic potencies differ widely from antigen to antigen in the different collectives. By the autoanalyzer technique, it was not possible to detect additional antibodies of presumptive clinical importance. On the other hand, in two exceptional cases, antibodies which caused a hemolytic transfusion reaction were only detected by survival studies. For routine transfusion work, our results lend no support to the alleged advantage of extending antigen determination in donors and recipients.

Red blood cell alloantibody frequency, specificity, and properties in a population of male military veterans

“…Our results revealed that antibody prevalence in military veterans in a VA hospital setting was 2.4 percent, which was as high or higher than that reported in retrospective studies of other general hospital-based, patient populations. 1,3,4 It is notable that military veterans in our study had this relatively high rate of alloimmunization despite the fact that they were overwhelmingly male; other studies have examined mixed-sex populations. This is an important distinction because women appear more likely to make blood group antibodies than men as a result of antigen exposure during pregnancy and because they appear to have an increased tendency to make naturally occurring blood group antibodies.…”

“…This is an important distinction because women appear more likely to make blood group antibodies than men as a result of antigen exposure during pregnancy and because they appear to have an increased tendency to make naturally occurring blood group antibodies. 2,4 With regard to RBC alloantibody prevalence in male veterans, it was unclear to what extent the absence of pregnancy-related antibodies might be counterbalanced by the veterans' increased risk of transfusion due to combat-related trauma. Military transfusions during World War II, the Korean War (1950 to 1953), and the Vietnam War (1965 to 1971) accounted for the administration of more than 1.5 million units of blood products to American soldiers.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Alloantibody prevalence varies approximately with the proportion of individuals previously transfused or pregnant in these various study groups. Accordingly, blood group alloantibodies have been detected in up to 0.8 percent of blood donors and generally approximately 1 to 2 percent of hospital-based patients.…”

“…Accordingly, blood group alloantibodies have been detected in up to 0.8 percent of blood donors and generally approximately 1 to 2 percent of hospital-based patients. [1][2][3][4] A higher proportion of known transfusion recipients, i.e., approximately 2 to 9 percent, will form a new alloantibody after the transfusion of one or more units of RBCs. [9][10][11] The highest blood group alloimmunization rates, ranging from approximately 9 to 30 percent, have been reported in patients receiving chronic transfusion therapy, such as those with sickle cell anemia, b-thalassemia, or hematologic malignancies.…”

The Influence of Clinical and Biological Factors on Transfusion-Associated Non-ABO Antigen Alloimmunization: Responders, Hyper-Responders, and Non-Responders

“…The overall incidence of alloimmunization in this group is reported to range from slightly less than 1% up to about 3% of patients undergoing type-and-screen testing [6,7,8,9,10,11]. It is important to note that these data arise primarily from retrospective analyses of patients at single institutions undergoing transfusion service antibody screening.…”