Prevalence and Specificity of RBC Alloantibodies in Indian Patients Attending a Tertiary Care Hospital.

Background. Red blood cell (RBC) alloimmunization results from genetic disparity of RBC antigens between donor and recipients. Data about alloimmunization rate in general patient population is scarce especially from resource limited countries.

Retrospective evaluation of adverse transfusion reactions following blood product transfusion from a tertiary care hospital: A preliminary step towards hemovigilance.

Background: The goal of hemovigilance is to increase the safety and quality of blood transfusion. Identification of the adverse reactions will help in taking appropriate steps to reduce their incidence and make blood transfusion process as safe as possible.

Aims: To determine the frequency and type of transfusion reactions (TRs) occurring in patients, reported to the blood bank at our institute.

Blood group phenotype frequencies in blood donors from a tertiary care hospital in north India.

Background: Knowledge about the frequency of red blood cell-antigen phenotypes in a population can be helpful in the creation of a donor data bank for the preparation of indigenous cell panels and for providing antigen-negative compatible blood to patients with multiple alloantibodies.

Methods: ABO and RhD blood grouping was performed on 9,280 continuous voluntary and replacement donors. For other rare blood groups, 508 ACD blood samples were obtained from the donors at the Blood Bank of the Department of Transfusion Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, India.

Individual donor nucleic acid testing for blood safety against HIV-1 and hepatitis B and C viruses in a tertiary care hospital.

Background: In July 2010, we started universal individual donor nucleic acid testing (ID-NAT) at our blood bank. This test simultaneously detects human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in samples of donor blood. We continued to do the enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test for these agents, as per the guidelines of the Drug Controller General of India.