Red blood cell phenotype matching for various ethnic groups

Patients requiring chronic transfusion support are at risk of alloimmunization after red blood cell (RBC) transfusion because of a disparity between donor and recipient antigen profiles. This research explored the probability of obtaining an exact extended phenotype match between blood donors randomly selected from our institution and patients randomly selected from particular ethnic groups. Blood samples from 1,000 blood donors tested by molecular method were evaluated for the predicted phenotype distribution of Rh, Kell, Kidd, Duffy, and MNS. A random subsample of 800 donor phenotypes was then evaluated for the probability of obtaining an exact match with respect to phenotype with a randomly selected patient from a particular ethnic group. Overall, there was a greater than 80 percent probability of finding an exact donor-recipient match for the K/k alleles in the Kell system. The probability ranged from 3 percent to 38 percent, depending on the ethnicity and disparities in phenotypic profiles, for the Rh, Kidd, Duffy, and MNS systems. A significant donor-recipient phenotype mismatch ratio exists with certain blood group antigens such that, with current routine ABO and D matching practices, recipients of certain ethnic groups are predisposed to alloimmunization. Immunohematology2011; 27:12–19.