Impact on patient of the detection of weakly expressed RhD antigens in blood donors

摘要

Due to blood transfusions, pregnancy, and organ/tissue transplants or grafts,1 red blood cell alloimmunization may lead to serious complications, such as hemolytic transfusion reactions,2, 3, 4 which have been regarded as one of the most frequent causes of transfusion-related deaths in recent years according to reports from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).5Rh, the most complex blood group system, has the highest clinical importance after the ABO group.6, 7 The D antigen, found in Rh-positive individuals, is the most important in the system as it is the most immunogenic.7, 8 Therefore, given the risk of alloimmunization, RhD-positive red blood cells must not be transfused to RhD-negative patients except in emergencies involving massive hemorrhage when RhD-negative units are not available.7.