Diego Blood Group System

The effect of extended c, E and K matching in females under 45 years of age on the incidence of transfusion‐induced red blood cell alloimmunisation

“…Notably, matching against specific high‐immunogenic RBC antigens did not seem to protect against alloimmunisation to other (non‐matched, non‐linked) ‘weaker’ RBC antigens by a mechanism of epitope spreading as suggested by others. 11 Comparing the standard distribution of RBC antigen phenotypes among the Caucasian population 12 to the one in our extended matched study population, the probability for a c‐negative female to randomly receive a c‐positive RBC unit in non‐matching conditions was 80%, whereas in matching conditions it was 6·5%. Thus, the overall risk reduction of receiving a mismatched RBC unit was 91·9% for c, and similarly calculated 87·6% for E, and 97·8% for K. Despite that the active cEK‐matching guidelines were applied throughout our entire study cohort, a fraction of females at risk were still exposed to cEK‐incompatible RBC units.…”

Results of noninvasive prenatal RHD testing in Gestation Week 25 are not affected by maternal body mass index

“…Comprehensive genotyping of RHD was done using a diagnostic system RBC‐Ready Gene CDE kit, (Inno‐Train) or, if an RHD variant was not detected, in‐house sequencing that targeted all 10 RHD exons was performed on a genetic analyzer (ABI 3500, Life Technologies). Sequences were analyzed with computer software (SeqScape, Version 3.0, Life Technologies) and detected variants were classified according to The Blood Group Antigen FactsBook and The Human RhesusBase…”

The relation between blood donor recruitment and donor diversity and loyalty in the Netherlands

“…Regarding donor demographics, we looked at the donors' sex, age -divided in four categories, i.e., 18-25, 26-40, 41-55, 55+ -and the prevalence of Duffy-antigens as a proxy for people from Sub-Saharan African descent [9].…”

“…This is particularly the case for Sub-Saharan African descendants who substantially differ in extended blood types compared with people of European descent, but are also more prone to blood disorders demanding multiple blood transfusions [8,9]. Due to growing multiculturalism, a diverse blood supply is needed to match with future transfusion needs [1].…”

“…Based on Duffy-negative phenotyped donors -a proxy for people of Sub-Saharan African descent [10], as ethnicity is not registered in the Dutch donor database and this phonotype is strongly ethno-specificabout 0.05% are found to be Duffy-negative ( Figure 2). In comparison, it can be estimated that about 165 thousand persons living in the Netherlands are Duffy-negative, which is approximately 1% of the total population [9,11].…”