The prevalence of undesired blood group antibodies in Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex patients

Abstract Background and Objectives There are many antibodies and antigens that cause blood group related transfusion reactions. In this study we aim to find the prevalence of blood group antibodies in patients at different ages and with different gender.   Materials and Methods In this descriptive study, we screened 30659 patients (59% female and 41% male, age range 1-85) referring to different wards of Imam Khomeini complex hospital during 2017-2018 for presence of any antibodies against blood group antigens. Then, for those patients with screened positive antibody we identified the antibody in each patient. Finally we categorized the antibody positive patients based on their main ABO and Rh blood group of all wards such as cancer, hematology, general and also separately for postpartum ward.   Results Out of 30659 patients in all wards, 123 and  out of 4364 just in postpartum ward, 20 patients had positive antibody. The most prevalent alloantibodies were detected to be anti-E(31.7%), anti-K(30.8%), and anti-D(14.6%) in order.   Conclusions  Anti-E and anti-K are the most likely antibodies presenting in patients with positive antibody screening results awareness of which can be helpful in storing blood components with rare blood groups. Moreover,  the evaluation of common alloantibodies in the postpartum ward shows that the administration of RhoGAM might not be adequate in HDFN prevention and other antibodies should be considered in this regard.