Prevalence of Anti-A and Anti-B Haemolysins in Group O Blood Donors at the National Blood Transfusion Center of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

Abstract

ABO blood-group system is characterized by the constant presence in the plasma of natural anti-A and anti-B antibodies (regular, agglutinating, class IgM) corresponding to the antigens absent on the membrane of the red blood cell. In addition to these natural antibodies, there may be immune antibodies (called haemolysins) in response to different types of immunological stimuli. These anti-A and anti-B haemolysins are capable of triggering the complete cascade of complement leading to haemolytic accidents in the case of non-isogroup ABO transfusion. Our objective was to determine the frequency of IgG anti-A, anti-B and anti-A + B haemolysins in group O blood donors at the national blood transfusion center of Abidjan. Our retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at the national blood transfusion center of Abidjan and that investigated anti-A, anti-B and anti-A + B haemolysins in the sera of 191 group O blood donnors, aged 18-65 years, using the heat technique with direct agglutination of the serum to be tested by red blood cells A1 and B papained. The prevalence of IgG haemolysins was 35.08% (10.47% anti-A, 15.71% anti-B and 8.9% anti-A + B). The average age of our population was 32,9 years [18-63 years] with a male / female sex ratio of 4.97. Haemolysin levels were higher in men (27.75%) than in women (7.33%) (not a significant difference, p= 0.44). Age distribution showed a high haemolysin level in the 25-29 age group (significant difference, p = 0.001), with variable rate ranging from 2.1% to 6.3%. Ideally, group O blood should only be transfused to group O subjects, except in emergency situations where iso-group blood is not available. Since the technique used in our study to investigated haemolysins was a qualitative method, we could not have the title of the various haemolysins in order to assess the real risk of an immunological accident after such a blood transfusion.