Red cell allo- and autoimmunisation in transfused sickle cell and cancer patients in Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya

African Journal of Laboratory Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Red cell allo- and autoimmunisation in transfused sickle cell and cancer patients in Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya
 
Creator Mangare, Caroline Mbugua, Amos Maturi, Peter Rajab, Jamila Blasczyk, Rainer Heuft, Hans-Gert
 
Subject — —
Description Background: Currently, no data are available on the prevalence of red blood cell (RBC) antibody formation amongst Kenyan patients with multiple transfusion needs, such as patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) or haematological malignancies (HM) and solid (SM) malignancies.Objectives: We determined the prevalence and specificities of RBC alloantibodies and autoantibodies in two patient groups with recurrent transfusion demands at Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya.Method: Between February and August 2014, 300 samples from SCD, HM and SM patients were collected and screened for alloantibodies. Samples from 51 healthy blood donors were screened for irregular antibodies and phenotyped.Results: Amongst the 228 patients with viable samples (SCD, n = 137; HM, n = 48; SM, n = 43), the median transfusion frequency was two to three events per group, 38 (16.7%) were RBC immunised and 32 (14.0%) had a positive direct antiglobulin test. We identified specific alloantibodies in six patients (2.6%). Four of these six were SCD patients (2.9%) who had specific RBC alloantibodies (anti-Cw, anti-M, anti-Cob, anti-S); amongst HM patients one had anti-K and one had anti-Lea. RBC autoantibody prevalence was 3.1% (7/228). Amongst the healthy blood donors, the Ror, ccD.ee and R2r, ccD.Ee phenotypes accounted for 82% of the Rhesus phenotypes and all were Kell negative.Conclusion: The numbers of transfusions and the rates of RBC alloantibodies are low and the most important RBC alloantibody-inducing blood group antigens are relatively homogeneously distributed in this population. A general change in the Kenyatta National Hospital pre-transfusion test regimen is thus not necessary. The current transfusion practice should be reconsidered if transfusion frequencies increase in the future.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Hannover Medical School, Kenyatta National Hospital Research and Programs Department
Date 2015-09-25
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ajlm.v4i1.297
 
Source African Journal of Laboratory Medicine; Vol 4, No 1 (2015); 7 pages 2225-2010 2225-2002
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/297/390 https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/297/391 https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/297/392 https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/297/379
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2015 Caroline Mangare, Amos Mbugua, Peter Maturi, Jamila Rajab, Rainer Blasczyk, Hans-Gert Heuft https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT