Freezing and recovering rare red blood cells using glycerol.

Rare red blood cells (RBCs) can be used in antibody identification or compatibility testing when antibodies to high-prevalence antigens or to other rare phenotypes are suspected. These rare RBCs are typically not readily available in commercial reagent RBC panels. When such RBCs are identified in donors or patients, however, laboratories can freeze and store the RBCs in a glycerol solution, which prevents severe freezing injury.

Red blood cell phenotype prevalence in blood donors who self-identify as Hispanic.

Molecular genotyping platforms provide a quick, high-throughput method for identifying red blood cell units for patients on extended phenotype-matching protocols, such as those with sickle cell disease or thalassemia. Most of the antigen prevalence data reported are for non-Hispanic populations. Therefore, this study sought to determine the phenotype prevalence in a single blood center's Hispanic population and to compare those results with previously reported rates in non-Hispanic donor populations.