Comparison of Blood Group Molecular Genotyping to Traditional Serological Phenotyping in Patients with Chronic or Recent Blood Transfusion

Objectives: Accurately identifying the Antigens (Ags) on recipient red blood cells (RBCs) is critical in prevention of RBC alloimmunization in chronically transfused patients. The goal of this study was to compare RBC molecular genotyping to serological phenotyping in those patients. Methods: Serological phenotyping and molecular genotyping methods were used to study blood samples from 18 healthy blood donors and 16 transfused patients. Reticulocyte harvesting or hypotonic cell separation was added to recheck RBC phenotypes of the patients with discrepancies between phenotyping and genotyping. Results: No discrepancies were found between the two genotyping methods in all the donors and patients. 1 of 9 sickle-cell disease (SCD) patients and all 3 thalassemia patients demonstrated discrepancies in multiple blood groups between phenotyping and genotyping, which were not corrected by reticulocyte harvesting or hypotonic cell separation. Conclusions: These findings suggest that RBC molecular genotyping is superior to serological phenotyping in chronically transfused SCD or thalassemia patients.