Blood type compatibility chart

All you need to know blood types and to whom you can donate


View more;
Blood type compatibility chart



Source:  You Tube Life at Civil Engineering

Why people with type O blood more likely to die of cholera

Cholera sickens 3 million to 5 million people around the world every year, leading to 100,000 to 120,000 deaths, many of them in the Indian subcontinent, where cholera has been endemic for centuries.

People with blood type O often get more severely ill from cholera than people of other blood types. In people with blood type O, scientists found that cholera toxin hyperactivates a key signaling molecule in intestinal cells. High levels of that signaling molecule lead to excretion of electrolytes and water – in other words, diarrhea. Cholera is marked by severe diarrhea that can lead to dehydration, shock and even death.

The researchers confirmed their results in an intestinal cell line originally derived from a person with blood type A. The cell line was modified to produce the type O antigen instead. They found that cholera toxin induced roughly double the amount of the key signaling molecule in cells with type O antigen than in those with type A.

Read more:
Study may explain why people with type O blood more likely to die of cholera

Source: Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Comparison between conventional and automated techniques for blood grouping and crossmatching

The routine immunohematological tests can be performed by automated as well as manual techniques. These techniques have advantages and disadvantages inherent to them. The present study aims to compare the results of manual and automated techniques for blood grouping and crossmatching so as to validate the automated system effectively.

A total of 1000 samples were subjected to blood grouping by the conventional tube technique (CTT) and the automated microplate LYRA system on Techno TwinStation. A total of 269 samples (multitransfused patients and multigravida females) were compared for 927 crossmatches by the CTT in indirect antiglobulin phase against the column agglutination technique (CAT) performed on Techno TwinStation.

For blood grouping, the study showed a concordance in results for 942/1000 samples (94.2%), discordance for 4/1000 (0.4%) samples and uninterpretable result for 54/1000 samples (5.4%). On resolution, the uninterpretable results reduced to 49/1000 samples (4.9%) with 951/1000 samples (95.1%) showing concordant results. For crossmatching, the automated CAT showed concordant results in 887/927 (95.6%) and discordant results in 3/927 (0.32%) crossmatches as compared to the CTT. Total 37/927 (3.9%) crossmatches were not interpretable by the automated technique.

The automated system shows a high concordance of results with CTT and hence can be brought into routine use. However, the high proportion of uninterpretable results emphasizes on the fact that proper training and standardization are needed prior to its use.

Read more:
Comparison between conventional and automated techniques for blood grouping and crossmatching: Experience from a tertiary care centre Bhagwat SN

Source: Journal of Laboratory Physics

Be more positive

..even if you are O negative

Happy Holidays from Blood Bank

Blood Needed Over Holidays

Santa helps fill up another Christmas stocking ... this time with life-giving Type O blood (Photo: Australian Red Cross Blood Service)

Read more:
Blood Needed Over Holidays - southburnett.com.au | southburnett.com.au

Christmas Blood Bags

Amazing blood bag desing. Don´t forget to donate blood during the holiday seasons.


View more:
Pek Darah Santa Claus 

World Blood Donor Day 14 June, 2015

The theme of this year’s campaign is "Thank you for saving my life". It focuses on thanking blood donors who save lives every day through their blood donations and strongly encourages more people all over the world to donate blood voluntarily and regularly with the slogan “Give freely, give often. Blood donation matters.” The campaign aims to highlight stories from people whose lives have been saved through blood donation, as a way of motivating regular blood donors to continue giving blood and people in good health who have never given blood, particularly young people, to begin doing so.

Read more:
WHO | 2015 World Blood Donor Day campaign

Source: WHO

Researchers closer to being able to change blood types

What do you do when a patient needs a blood transfusion but you don’t have their blood type in the blood bank? It’s a problem that scientists have been trying to solve for years but haven’t been able to find an economic solution – until now.

University of British Columbia chemists and scientists in the Centre for Blood Research have created an enzyme that could potentially solve this problem. The enzyme works by snipping off the sugars, also known as antigens, found in Type A and Type B blood, making it more like Type O. Type O blood is known as the universal donor and can be given to patients of all blood types.

Read more:
Researchers closer to being able to change blood types

Source: University of British Columbia

Red blood cell goodies

Red blood cell iced gems from Nevie Pie Cakes

How blood group O protects against malaria

It has long been known that people with blood type O are protected from dying of severe malaria. In a study published in Nature Medicine, a team of Scandinavian scientists explains the mechanisms behind the protection that blood type O provides, and suggest that the selective pressure imposed by malaria may contribute to the variable global distribution of ABO blood groups in the human population.

A team of scientists led from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now identified a new and important piece of the puzzle by describing the key part played by the RIFIN protein. Using data from different kinds of experiment on cell cultures and animals, they show how the Plasmodium falciparum parasite secretes RIFIN, and how the protein makes its way to the surface of the blood cell, where it acts like glue. The team also demonstrates how it bonds strongly with the surface of type A blood cells, but only weakly to type O.

This study ties together previous findings. It can explain the mechanism behind the protection that blood group O provides against severe malaria, which can, in turn, explain why the blood type is so common in the areas where malaria is common. In Nigeria, for instance, more than half of the population belongs to blood group O, which protects against malaria.”

Read more:
How blood group O protects against malaria

Source: Karolinska Institutet

The Rh blood group system

The Rh blood group system is one of the most polymorphic and immunogenic systems known in humans. In the past decade, intense investigation has yielded considerable knowledge of the molecular background of this system. The genes encoding 2 distinct Rh proteins that carry C or c together with either E or e antigens, and the D antigen, have been cloned, and the molecular bases of many of the antigens and of the phenotypes have been determined. A related protein, the Rh glycoprotein is essential for assembly of the Rh protein complex in the erythrocyte membrane and for expression of Rh antigens. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of several aspects of the Rh blood group system, including the confusing terminology, progress in molecular understanding, and how this developing knowledge can be used in the clinical setting. Extensive documentation is provided to enable the interested reader to obtain further information.

The Rh blood group system was first described 60 years ago. A woman had a severe transfusion reaction when she was transfused with blood from her husband following delivery of a stillborn child with erythroblastosis fetalis. Her serum agglutinated red blood cells (RBCs) from her husband and from 80% of Caucasian ABO-compatible donors. The following year, Landsteiner and Wiener found that sera from rabbits (and later guinea pigs) immunized with RBCs from Macaca mulatta (Macacus rhesus in the original paper) agglutinated 85% of human RBC samples. Initially, it was thought that the animal and human antibodies identified a common factor, Rh, on the surface of rhesus and human RBCs. It was soon realized that this was not the case. Therefore, the original terms (Rh factor and anti-Rh) coined by Landsteiner and Wiener, although being misnomers, have continued in common usage. The heteroantibody was renamed anti-LW (after Landsteiner and Wiener), and the human alloantibody was renamed anti-D.

The Rh blood group system is the most polymorphic of the human blood groups, consisting of at least 45 independent antigens and, next to ABO, is the most clinically significant in transfusion medicine. The ability to clone complementary DNA (cDNA) and sequence genes encoding the Rh proteins has led to an understanding of the molecular bases associated with some of the Rh antigens. Serologic detection of polymorphic blood group antigens and of phenotypes provides a valuable source of appropriate blood samples for study at the molecular level. This review summarizes our present understanding of the complexities of Rh blood group expression and how this knowledge impacts on clinical situations that arise through Rh blood group incompatibility.

Read more:
The Rh blood group system: a review

 Source: Blood Journal

Audit of the Use of Fresh Frozen Plasma in UK

Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) may be associated with high rates of inappropriate transfusion with some studies indicating rates of up to 50 per cent non-compliance with established guidelines. The current British Committee for Standards in Haematology (BCSH) guidelines on the use of FFP aim to reinforce the message regarding avoidance of its inappropriate use. An audit of FFP use in 2007 in the South Central region, revealed that FFP was used for warfarin reversal in 26 per cent of the cases audited. FFP weight related dosage was poorly implemented with weight being recorded in only 32 per cent of cases. The 2009 National Comparative Audit (NCA) programme indicated that FFP continued to be used for warfarin reversal and, was frequently given where there was no evidence of actual bleeding. An audit of FFP use in the South West in one large hospital, found that following a period of intensive educational measures, appropriate use of FFP improved dramatically, particularly with respect to use for warfarin reversal. An earlier East Midlands (EM) regional audit into FFP use, demonstrated that there was continued use of FFP for warfarin reversal, under dosing with poor weight recording and transfusion of FFP, with normal pre-transfusion coagulation continued.

Read more:
26063 Blood and Transplant Matters (Issue 44).indd - blood_matters_44.pdf

Source: Blood and transplants matter

Rationale Use of Blood Components

Blood transfusion remains the most commonly performed tissue transplant and is life saving in situations such as trauma, surgical blood loss, and severe anemia. The provision of transfusion services by hospitals, however, remains under pressure by concerns over safety, costs, and blood availability. There is little doubt that despite the best efforts of the transfusion services, a definite risk of complications remains with blood transfusion. The incidence of some of these, including transmission of infective agents and immunological reactions because of human error or undetected incompatibility, has been documented with a certain degree of precision. However, the clinical impact of immunosuppression, potentially leading to infection, cancer recurrence, and poor postoperative outcome, is difficult to quantify.

In the last decade, new procedures have been implemented in advanced countries to guarantee the safety of stored blood. These include routine nucleic acid testing for transfusion transmitted infections and universal leukodepletion. However, as a consequence, the cost of stored blood has risen dramatically and its inappropriate use will result in a progressively greater wastage of resources. Strict donor selection and a progressively ageing population already limit the number of potential blood donors. There is growing concern on the potential impact of transmissible disease screening on the number of volunteers willing to donate blood and the handling of those testing positive because shortages in supply may influence red cell use independently of clinical indications for transfusion. Therefore, hospitals have been forced to elaborate strategies to ensure appropriate use of blood and components.

Read more:
Indian Journal of Transfusion Medicine

Source: IJTM

Turbid plasma donations

No objective guidelines exist regarding handling of turbid blood units in developing countries. Therefore, use or discard of such units is decided as per local protocols which are mostly subjective and vary over time. Some of such turbid units are removed by blood centers at the time of preparation when 'milky appearance' is very gross, while some are returned by treating doctor at the time of transfusion. Overall, the frequency of lipemic donations ranges between 0.31 and 0.35%, although sporadic reports have highlighted that the frequency might be much higher, up to 13%. Nonetheless, a significant numbers of such blood and plasma units are thus discarded each year.

Thus, the blood donors, the blood center, as well as the transfusion recipient; all are impacted by such turbid donations. Therefore, there is an imminent need to have studies on large sample size with an objective of providing guidelines for blood centres for testing as well as use of these turbid donations for blood transfusion purpose.

Read more:
Turbid plasma donations: Need for quantification

Source: : Asian J Transfus Sci

Inside the Blood Factory That Keeps Track of the World's Rare Donors

When most of us think of "rare blood," we think of AB-positive or O-negative. But it turns out there are far, far rarer types than that. In Filton, England, there's a lab that handles blood donations from across the UK—and identifies this super-rare blood.

Photographer Greg White recently got a tour of the NHS Blood & Transplant's Filton Blood Center while on assignment for the science publication Mosaic. The International Blood Group Reference Laboratory (IBGRL) keeps track of "golden blood," because of its extraordinarily rare occurrence and its ability to save the lives of the few people who share it.

The IBGRL has been around since the 1940s, and it's where many major advances in blood science have taken place, like the discovery of many new antigens—the stuff in our blood that invokes immune responses, and the presence or absence of which determines our blood types. But one of its most important roles is keeping track of rare blood donors, both so that they can donate to other rare blood type patients in need, and for equally vital research purposes.


Read more:
Inside the Blood Factory That Keeps Track of the World's Rare Donors


 Source: Gizmodo

The Bombay Phenotype

ABO and H are the most important of the currently characterized blood group systems, since incompatibility between transfused red cells and recipient plasma leads to potentially devastating consequences. Those learning about this system spend lots of time memorizing biochemical details that can be overwhelming. In addition, exam-writers seem to enjoy asking questions about unusual entities in these systems that most blood bankers will never see in real life. Specific questions about two very rare situations with altered red blood cell appearances ("phenotypes"), known as "Acquired B" and "Bombay," are very commonly included on examinations.

In brief, ABO antigens on red blood cells are made in a sequential manner. First, long sugar chains attached to either lipids or proteins (glycolipids or glycoproteins, respectively) on the surface of the RBC must be modified through the work of an enzyme encoded by the H (FUT1) gene (chromosome 19) to display H antigen activity (for more details, please see the video above). Only then can the chain be further modified by the action of a second enzyme that adds a single sugar to change that H antigen into either an A or a B antigen. The alleles inherited at the ABO gene site on chromosome 9 (A, B, and/or O) determine which ABO antigens will be expressed on the red cell surface, but again, such a change ONLY happens if the precursor antigen (H) is made first.

Read more:
The Bombay Phenotype

Source: A blog for medical laboratory professionals

Positivie thinking

You need to be more positive...

Source: Wawawiwadesign

Blood for Holiday Season

Don´t forget to donate

Blood rinsing cuts the time for glycerol removal

A microfluidic device can safely remove glycerol from thawed red blood cells in minutes, potentially making frozen blood more feasible for routine transfusions.

Glycerol protects cryopreserved cells from damage by disrupting the formation of ice crystals. But glycerol must be washed from blood cells before they can be used for transfusions. The existing washing protocol involves a slow series of centrifugations, which limits the utility of frozen blood supplies to transfusions for people with rare blood types, or patients whose own blood is banked prior to planned surgery.  

Dialysis with decreasing saline concentrations gently cleanses thawed red blood cells of the toxic cryoprotectant glycerol. This microfluidic approach cuts the time for glycerol removal from an hour down to three minutes.

Read more:
Next Generation: Precision Blood Rinsing 

Source: The Scientist Magazine
Image credits: Egelberg

ABO blood group system - The Acquired B phenotype

Routine ABO testing is performed in two distinct (but usually simultaneous) stages, known as "red cell grouping" (forward grouping or "front type") and "serum grouping" (reverse grouping or "back type"). Here's an example of how it works: If a person's red blood cells (RBCs) react strongly with reagent anti-A but not anti-B, we would interpret their red cell grouping as blood group A. If there is no ABO discrepancy, that same person's serum should have no reaction with reagent group A1 RBCs and strong reaction with reagent group B RBCs (demonstrating the expected presence of anti-B in the serum). Thus, the serum grouping interpretation would also be blood group A, and no ABO discrepancy would exist

ABO discrepancies occur any time the interpretations of a person's red cell and serum grouping do not agree. ABO discrepancy takes on many forms, and acquired B is a great, if not terribly common, example.

Read more:
Transfusion Medicine Education

Source: Blood Bank Guy