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The Blood Bank at Kasturba Hospital received samples from a patient who required urgent blood transfusion. The doctors were unable to find a compatible blood unit even after cross-matching with more than 80 units. Extensive immunohematology workup was performed by the blood bank team and further for confirmation, samples were referred to the International Blood group Reference Laboratory (IBGRL), Bristol, UK for serological testing. With the help of reference laboratory it was confirmed that the patient’s cells had the rare ‘pp’ phenotype.
Dr. Poornima Baliga, Pro-vice chancellor of faculty of health sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) said that it was for the first time P blood group null phenotype has been detected in India and she supported the Blood Bank’s initiative to build rare donor registry for the region.
Dr. Shamee Shastry professor and head of the department of Immunohematology and Blood Transfusion said “The patient had a very rare ‘P’null blood group and anti PP1Pk antibody in his blood that has a potential to cause acute intravascular hemolytic reaction to incompatible blood transfusion. Rare donor registry will be of great help in managing such cases. This antibody is also known to cause recurrent abortions in women. Finding compatible unit for such case is a near impossible task without a well-established rare donor panel,” she said.
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