Essential Guide to Blood Groups

A pocket-sized book containing four-color text together with schematic figures and tables. The book comprises an introduction to blood groups, followed by chapters on techniques, information on various blood groups, antibodies, quality assurance in immunohaematology, and it concludes with chapters on troubleshooting in the laboratory, and FAQs. It also covers the serology, inheritance, biochemistry and molecular genetics of the most important blood group systems. Table of Contents Abbreviations, xx 1 An introduction to blood groups What is a blood group? Blood group antibodies Clinical importance of blood groups Biological importance of blood groups Blood group systems Blood group terminology and classification 2 Techniques used in blood grouping Factors affecting antigen–antibody reactions Temperature Time and ionic strength Stages of haemagglutination reactions Direct agglutination Indirect agglutination Elution techniques Automation of test procedures Flow cytometry Molecular blood group genotyping 3 The ABO blood groups Introduction ABO antigens, antibodies, and inheritance A1 and A2 Antigen, phenotype, and gene frequencies ABO antibodies Importance of the ABO system to transfusion and transplantation medicine Biochemical nature of the ABO antigens Biosynthesis of the ABO antigens and ABO molecular genetics H, the precursor of A and B ABH secretion H–deficient red cells Further complexities Acquired changes Associations with disease and functional aspects 4 The Rh blood group system Introduction – Rh, not rhesus Haplotypes, genotypes, and phenotypes Biochemistry and molecular genetics D antigen (RH1) C, c, E, and e antigens (RH2, RH4, RH3, RH5) Other Rh antigens Rh–deficient phenotypes – Rhnull and Rhmod Putative function of the Rh proteins and RhAG 5 Other blood groups The Kell system The Duffy system The Kidd system The MNS system The Diego system The Lewis system Some other blood group systems Antigens that do not belong to a blood group system 6 Clinical significance of blood group antibodies Antibody production and structure Factors affecting the clinical significance of antibodies Haemolytic transfusion reactions (HTR) Haemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN) Autoantibodies Tests to assess the potential significance of an antibody Decision–making for transfusion 7 Blood grouping from DNA Fetal blood grouping Blood group typing of patients and donors Next generation sequencing The future of blood group serology 8 Quality assurance in immunohaematology Achieving total quality Frequency and specificity of control material Quality requirements for safe transfusion practice Checklist of critical control points Laboratory errors, root cause analysis (RCA) and corrective and preventative action (CAPA) 9 Trouble–shooting and problem–solving in the reference laboratory ABO grouping Rh grouping Problems in antibody screening, identification, and cross–matching 10 Frequently asked questions Recommended reading Index