Abo antibody titer study in healthy donors in tertiary care centre of southern rajasthan

Introduction-Besides risk of TTIs (transfusion transmitted diseases), plasma containing product like platelets, fresh frozen plasma, whole blood and IVIg also have naturally occurring ABO antibodies and sometimes these products are used ABO-incompatible. These ABO-antibodies sometimes can cause hemolytic reaction in recipients. There is no generalised consensus on critical titer or high titer level of ABO antibodies in incompatible units (which can cause haemolysis) on national level. Generally > 64 is considered as high titer for IgM and >256 for IgG antibodies.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES- Our aims were to evaluate the trends ofanti-A and anti-B antibody titer levels in healthy blood donors, in relation to age and gender, in relation to different ABO blood group and to define a strategy to deal with incompatible ABO plasma containing products.
Material and Methods-We used conventional tube method of titrationas per AABB standard, to identify level of ABO-IgM and IgG antibodies in randomly selected 1050 healthy blood donors.
Result- Our study shows O blood group has much high titer of all type of ABO antibodies than A and B groups. Which was statically highly significant (p value <0.001).
In "O +ve" blood donors, % of donors having anti-A & anti-B IgM antibody titer >64 were as high as 39.42% & 36.85% respectively. And % of donors having anti-A & anti-B IgG antibody titer >256 were as high as 41.71%. & 41.42% respectively. The distribution was statistically significant for anti-A IgG & IgM antibodies both (p value 0.027 & 0.023)
respectively. Females had higher HT (high titer) anti-B antibody than males in ‘O’ blood group but the distribution was statically non significant (p value 0.08 & 0.10 for IgM & IgG respectively).
Conclusions-It is important to implement a practical strategy by Transfusion Medicine speciality to reduce the risk of haemolysis caused by blood products which contain ABO incompatible plasma. This study concludes that titration of ABO antibodies in blood banks will increase safety in transfusion of products, containing ABO incompatible plasma like platelets, FFPs, WB(whole blood) and IVIg.