Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of A2 and A2B subgroups among blood groups A and AB in healthy donors. METHODS: It was a Cross-Sectional study, conducted at the Department of Hematology & Transfusion Medicine, UCHS, The Children's Hospital Lahore and Sundas foundation Lahore from June 2022 to December 2022 including 13,120 healthy blood donors of both genders, after taking informed consent. Venous blood samples of donors were collected in EDTA vials (3ml) and serum gel vial for routine blood grouping which was done by standard tube method. Further testing of donors positive for an antigen (blood Group-A and AB) was performed using anti-A1 lectin by standard tube method as per manufacturer's instruction. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 23. RESULTS: Among 13120 blood donors, 12857 (97.9%) were male and 263 (2.0%) were female with mean age of 36.7 years ± 15.04 years. Majority of them (91.7%) were of Punjabi ethnicity. Donors having blood group phenotype A and AB were 3890 (29.6%). Among blood Group-A donors, A1 was found in 97.8% and A2 in 2.2% donors. While among Blood Group-AB, 96.7% donors belonged to A1B blood group and 3.2% belonged to A2B blood group. CONCLUSIONS: Blood group A2 and A2B do exist in blood donors of Punjabi ethnicity. The knowledge of presence of these blood groups' phenotypes in our population can provide a better base for transfusion staff to do troubleshooting in compatibility testing and to avoid any rare but hazardous transfusion outcome.