Prevalence of Clinically Significant Alloantibodies among Transfusion Requiring Patients in a Tertiary Hospital in Sokoto, Nigeria

Aim: No data are available regarding the frequencies of clinically significant alloantibodies among patients requiring transfusion in Sokoto North western Nigeria. We intend to provide information on the prevalence of clinically significant alloantibodies and their specificity among patients that required blood transfusion in this region.

Study Design: In this present cross sectional descriptive study, 229 patients consented to the study, with median ages of 26.5 years, 24.0% were males while 174 (76.0%) were females. There were 11 patients who had sickle cell disease (SCD), 10 patients had cancers (Ovarian 4, Bladder 3 and Cervical 3), while other were admitted for various diseases but pregnancy complications predominates. The study was carried out between the months of September and October 2015.

Materials and Methods: Three millilitres of whole blood was collected from each subject into an EDTA anticoagulated tubes. The plasma was collected screened for the presence of clinically significant alloantibodies by Ortho Biovue system cassettes (AHG/Coombs) technique using the Lorne Laboratories of UK antibody screen cells and panel cells.

Results: The result indicated that 14.85% of the patients had clinically significant alloantibodies in their plasma of which 64.71% were female and 35.29% were male. 100% of anti-D and anti-c and 50% of anti-E were identified in female. Anti-f, anti-Jka, anti-Leb, anti-Fyb, anti-Pi and anti-Kpa each 0.44% were identified in female plasma, anti-Cw was found in 0.44% in male while about 9.17% of the alloantibodies could not be identified. We observed that 6 out of 23 patients with chronic diseases developed alloantibodies.

Conclusion: We concluded that the prevalence of alloantibodies among the studied population was high. However, 9.17% of the formed clinically significant alloantibodies in these patients cannot be identified by the known panels of cells made from the Caucasians population. It could be that unknown antigens exist in this part of the world.