Prevalence of Bombay Blood Group Amongst the Healthy Blood Donors at a Tertiary Care Centre in Western Rajasthan, India

Abstract

Introduction: The prevalence of Bombay (Oh Phenotype) is not precisely known in Rajasthan state. Because of the fact that Bombay blood group is clinically significant, we decided to conduct a study at our centre to determine the prevalence of Bombay blood group among blood donor population in Western Rajasthan.
 Methodology: This blood bank based prospective study was carried out amongst the blood donors over a period of 11 months, i.e., from February 2019 to December 2019. Total 30,000 donor samples were screened for ABO-RhD blood grouping and antibody screening. Auto control, indirect antiglobulin test (IAT) and Bombay blood group (Anti-H lectin) tests were run on all the O blood group samples showing agglutination with O reagent cells (in reverse grouping). Donors negative on Anti-H testing were tested for saliva A, B and H antigens and interpreted.
 Results: Out of the total 30,000 donors, the maximum number of donors had blood group B+ (32.76%), followed by O+ (29.9%), A+ (20.41%), AB+ (8.06%), B- (3.11), O- (3.02%), A- (1.93%) and AB- (0.8%). Prevalence of Bombay blood group among study population was calculated to be 0.003%.
 Conclusion: Bombay phenotype is a rare blood group but not uncommon. If serum grouping is not performed, it is misdiagnosed as blood group O. Therefore both forward and reverse blood grouping should be done on 100% samples.
 Keywords: Bombay, Anti-H lectin, Serum grouping, Blood donors.