The value of phenotyping and genotyping of Duffy and Kidd antigen systems in case of frequent red blood cell transfusions

Accurate phenotyping of multitransfused patients is often complicated - mostly due to the presence of circulating transfused donor’s RBCs in the recipient’s blood, leading to discrepancies in the assessment of test results. The question when genotyping including Duffy and Kidd systems should be used for patients undergoing chronic RBC transfusions is still being discussed. Serological testing and evaluation of the antigens and antibodies of Duffy and Kidd systems are among the main problems in multitransfused patients. The research on immunohematology and blood group genetics has been caried out for the first time in Lithuania. A high rate (more than 30%) of disagreements between the results of phenotyping and genotyping in our study demonstrates the benefit of DNA-based testing for chronically-transfused patients. In order to estimate the value of phenotyping and genotyping of Duffy and Kidd antigen systems in patients undergoing long-term RBC transfusions, the impact of demographic, clinical, immunohaematological or transfusion-related factors, on the discrepancy of the results, was investigated. Time frame that could be appropriate to obtain reliable results of conventionaly used serologic tests (hemmagglutination reaction) after the last transfusion was established as well as appropriate recommendations were made. We believe that these studies could be helpful for clinical practice as well as in decreasing the risk of transfusion of red blood cells