Characteristics and frequency of DEL phenotype detected by indirect antiglobulin test in Dalmatia county of Croatia

Anti-D Antibodies in Pregnant D Variant Antigen Carriers Initially Typed as RhD+

“…Despite DVI variant being held for the most clinically relevant partial D variant among Caucasians [1], the affected women in our study were of DVa and DNB categories. Moreover, the research performed on blood donors from the same geographic region found no carriers of partial DVI category [22]. DNB is known to be the most prevalent partial D variant in the neighboring regions of Central Europe [23].…”

Screening for DEL phenotype in RhD negative Indians

“…The most common DEL allele in Caucasians is the RHD (M295I) with a frequency of 1:6493 in Europeans . A much higher frequency of 1:272 was found in D negative donors from Croatia . This allele shows a weak D phenotype and a DEL phenotype when present in a cDe and CDe haplotype, respectively.…”

Anti‐D reagents should be chosen accordingly to the prevalence of D variants in the obstetric population

“…In this study, partial D category VI was not found in direct typing because it is categorized as D− by our serologic selection criteria for routine RhD typing. However, in our previous study on 8670 blood donors in the same population, we used the same serologic methods and reagents to investigate donors which typed D− in direct agglutination but D+ in IAT, and genotyping did not reveal a single case of D category VI . This was a surprising finding, since D category VI is the clinically most relevant partial D type among Caucasians with frequency between 0.02%‐0.05% .…”

“…However, in our previous study on 8670 blood donors in the same population, we used the same serologic methods and reagents to investigate donors which typed D− in direct agglutination but D+ in IAT, and genotyping did not reveal a single case of D category VI. 7 This was a surprising finding, since D category VI is the clinically most relevant partial D type among Caucasians with frequency between 0.02%-0.05%. 1,6,13 Adjusting the reagent choice would be in accordance with suggestions from other authors, stating that the profile of monoclonal antibodies for RhD typing should be chosen individually regarding to the population for which it is used.…”

“…5,6 Anti-D is still the leading cause of the hemolytic disease of fetus and newborn (HDFN) in the obstetric population of Split-Dalmatian County, Croatia. 7,8 The division between D+ and D− status is not always straightforward, due to over 200 D variant phenotypes having been reported to date. 9 Generally, "weak D" variants are result of mutations in which all D epitopes are present but with reduced expression, while "partial D" represents variants in which the mutations result in the absence of certain polypeptides on the outer RBC surface.…”