Red blood cell antigen portrait of self-identified black donors in Quebec.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to establish a red blood cell antigen portrait of self-identified Black donors for the province of Quebec, Canada. BACKGROUND: The demand for extensively phenotyped red blood cells is on the rise. A good example is the sickle cell patient cohort. To better answer their transfusion needs, Héma-Québec put forward great efforts to increase the recruitment of donors among cultural communities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In October 2009, an optional question was added on the record of donation to indicate the donor's ethnicity. Self-identified Black donors were extensively phenotyped by the Immunohematology Laboratory, whereas the Research and Development team genotyped red blood cell antigens to complete the picture. RESULTS: Approximately 1500 self-identified Black donors have donated blood at least once since the beginning of the programme. Genotyping results predicted rare phenotypes: 18 S-s- (3 U-, 15 U+(w) ), 15 Js(a+b-), 5 Hy-, 3 Jo(a-), 34 hr(B) +(w) /- and 15 hr(B)-. CONCLUSION: These Black donors, with or without a rare phenotype, are precious to the patient cohort depending on blood transfusions and to our organisation as the blood provider for the whole province of Quebec.

Set-up and routine use of a database of 10,555 genotyped blood donors to facilitate the screening of compatible blood components for alloimmunized patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Large-scale genotyping of blood donors for red blood cell and platelet antigens has been predicted to replace phenotyping assays in the screening of compatible blood components for alloimmunized patients. Although several genotyping platforms have been described, novel procedures and processes are needed to perform genotyping efficiently and to maximize its benefits for blood banks. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Here we describe the processes and procedures developed to introduce large-scale genotyping in our routine operations. RESULTS: Preliminary cost-benefit analysis indicated that genotyping must target frequent blood donors (> 3 donations/year) to be efficiently used. A custom-designed computer application was developed to manage the whole project. It selects frequent donors among recent donations, prints coded labels to identify blood samples sent to the external genotyping laboratory, and stores genotyping results. It can search for donors compatible for any combination of the 22 genotyped antigens as well as consult the current inventory for the presence of the corresponding blood components. The phenotype of recovered components is confirmed by standard serology techniques prior to shipment to hospitals. CONCLUSION: Since October 2007, 10 555 blood donors have been genotyped. The database is used on a regular basis to find compatible blood components with a genotype-phenotype concordance of 99.6%.