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RBC alloantibody prevalence and specificity in a Western Norwegian tertiary hospital
Author(s) -
Erikstein B. S.,
Hagen K. G.,
Hervig T.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
transfusion medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.471
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1365-3148
pISSN - 0958-7578
DOI - 10.1111/tme.12511
Subject(s) - medicine , isoantibodies , norwegian , cohort , antibody , cohort study , obstetrics , immunology , pediatrics , linguistics , philosophy
SUMMARY Background and Objective Although several studies focus on red blood cell (RBC) alloantibody distribution in selected patient populations, few address the specificity and frequency in all relevant groups. This study reports alloantibody frequency, distribution and the relationship to age and gender in blood donors, pregnant women and potential recipients of blood products. Methods This historical cohort study included 55 462 consecutive antibody screening tests from a tertiary Western Norwegian Hospital. Descriptive statistics were performed, and the results were compared with the literature. Results The detection and immunisation frequency for the whole cohort were 0·39 and 0·51%, respectively, whereas the RBC alloantibody prevalence was 0·73%. The most frequent RBC alloantibodies were anti‐E (20·1%), anti‐M (18·7%), anti‐K (9·8%), anti‐D (8·9%) and anti‐Fy(a) (7·0%). In pregnant women, the most frequent RBC alloantibodies were anti‐M, anti‐D and anti‐Le(a) (20·8, 18·9 and 18·9%, respectively), whereas there was no anti‐K detected. Anti‐E and anti‐M were the dominating RBC alloantibodies in the pre‐transfusion testing of in‐hospital patients (24·1 and 17·1%, respectively). Eighteen (9·2%) persons in the total cohort had two RBC alloantibodies, six persons had three alloantibodies, and two persons had four alloantibodies. Rh and K typing to prevent future immunisations was only performed in 21·0% of the individuals who presented with a new alloantibody; despite that, 50·5% of the detected alloantibodies had such specificities. Conclusions The immunisation frequency and the level of anti‐K are low compared to national and international studies. Rh and K phenotype‐matched blood transfusions might be a feasible future strategy to further decrease RBC alloantibodies.