Journal of Blood Disorders & Transfusion

Red cell autoimmunization in multitransfused thalassemia patients

16^th World Hematology Congress

March 18-19, 2019 | Rome, Italy

Rajendra Chaudhary

Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, India

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Blood Disord Transfus

Abstract:

Thalassemia is a major health problem in India. Transfusion support remains the main stay of treatment. Red blood cell alloimmunization is an important complication in transfusion dependent patients. The study was conducted to determine alloimmunization prevalence and to evaluate risk factors that could influence alloimmunization and make strategies to minimize transfusion associated risks in those patients. Clinical, demographic, allo and autoantibody status and transfusion records of 400 thalassemia patients at our hospital were studied. Patients with and without alloantibodies were compared to find significant differences for age, gender, race, age at start of regular transfusions and splenectomy. Thirty six (9%) developed and 42 clinically significant alloantibodies. Majority 27(65%) of the alloantibodies were of Rh system. Twenty two (5.5%) of the 400 patients developed autoantibodies. Patient age was found to be significantly higher in alloimmunized patients than in non alloimmunized patients. Rate of alloimmunization increased with the number of units transfused. Patients who received unfiltered blood had a higher alloimmunization rate compared to those who always received leukoreduced blood. Patients who underwent splenectomy had a higher alloimmunization rate compated to those without splenectomy. The frequency of red cell alloimmunization in thalassemia patients from our center is moderate. Implementation policy of universal leukoreduction may help in minimizing alloimmunization. However, policy of providing extended phenotype matched blood may not be cost effective in our setting because of antigenic concordance between transfusion dependent patients and blood donors in general.

Biography :

E-mail: rkcsgpgi@gmail.com