Erythrocyte Phenotyping in ABO, RH and Kell Blood Group Systems in the Donor and Recipient of Blood Products at the Yaounde University and Hospital Center

In order to prevent post transfusion alloimmunization, it is essential to give recipients compatible blood products. However in countries with limited income, blood grouping is limited to the ABO system and to the D antigen of the Rhesus system; however, there are other immunogenic antigens such as C, c, E, e and K to name a few. This should be the reason why a retrospective study by Tayou et al. at the blood bank of the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Yaoundé in 2009 on the erythrocyte phenotype in the donor and recipient of blood product only reported to us that data relate to the erythrocyte blood group system ABO and the Rh 1 antigen. We therefore found it expedient to carry out erythrocyte phenotyping in the ABO, RH and KELL blood group systems in the donor and recipient of blood products at the CHU of Yaoundé.

A descriptive, transversal and prospective study was carried out at the blood bank of the CHU of Yaoundé over 6 months, from June 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017. It was interested in the donor-recipient couples of blood within which the recipient was a patient hospitalized at the CHU. Laboratory analyses of donor and recipient blood samples have allowed us to have the phenotypes in the ABO, RH, and KELL blood group systems.

In the ABO system, the phenotypes obtained were 4: A1, A1B, B and O at 27.27%, 2.27%, 13.64% and 56.82% respectively among donors and 31.82%, 2.27%, 13.64% and 52.27% among recipients. In addition, from the Rhesus system, there were 5 phenotypes in donors: D + C + E + c + e +, D + C + E-c + e +, D + C-E + c + e +, D + CE-c + e +, DCE-c + e + respectively at 2.27%, 11.36%, 9.09%, 75.00% and 2.27% and in recipients 4 phenotypes, namely: D + C + E + c + e +, D + C-E + c + e +, D + CE-c + e +, DCE-c + e + at 15.91%, 27.27%, 54.55% and 2.27% respectively. In the KELL system, the K antigen was present in 4.55% of donors and 2.27% of recipients. An antigen supply from the donor to the recipient was evaluated at 6.82% for C, 4.54% for E, 2.27% for K and 2.27% for K, C, E at the same time. This gave us an estimate of the average risk of alloimmunization at 15.9%.

Erythrocyte phenotyping would therefore be of major benefit during blood transfusion and would considerably prevent the risks of alloimmunization.