Prevalence of irregular red blood cell antibodies among healthy blood donors in Delhi population.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the prevalence of the anti-red blood cell antibodies among healthy blood donors.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Antibody screening of all voluntary blood donor serum was performed as routine immunohematological procedure. 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).

RESULT: A total of 47,450 donors were screened for the presence of irregular erythrocyte antibodies. A total of forty-six donors showed presence of alloantibodies in their serum (46/47,450%, 0.09%), yielding a prevalence of 0.09%. Most frequent alloantibodies identified were of MNS blood group system. The results showed statistically a higher prevalence of RBC alloantibodies in females than in males.

CONCLUSION: Screening for presence of alloantibodies in donor blood is important to provide compatible blood products and to avoid transfusion reactions.