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Blood Typing
Blood type is determined based on the 2 methods. 1) Direct method, which is deciding the blood group based on the antigens present on the RBC surface 2) Reverse method in which blood type is ascertained from the antibodies present in the blood.
According to the ABO blood group system, there are 4 blood types based on the antigens on RBC surface 1) A, 2) B, 3)AB, and 4)O. The Rh factor is determined based on the presence of Rh antigens on the RBC surface. A the time of blood transfusion, it is unsafe, to receive a different blood type, because the donor blood might have antigens that could be attacked receptors blood antibodies(Jose Fernandes, Sara Pimenta, Filomena O. Soares, & Graca Minas, 2015). Thus blood typing plays a significant role.
Statistical Data
According to the NACO Blood Transfusion service report 2014, Blood Transfusion Service is a vital part of the modern health care system without which medical care is impossible. It is essential to ensure the provision of safe, clinically effective, appropriate, and consistent quality of blood and blood products to all those who require transfusion. Facts from giving blood organization are: Someone needs blood every two seconds. According to 2018 report from SHOT, blood transfusions were associated with eight deaths, 3,038 reported adverse incidents, and 117 cases of major harm. The figures include 180 allergic reactions, including 33 that were potentially life-threatening most severe reactions result from ABO incompatibility. The most common cause of mismatched blood transfusion is a clerical error. This data describes the frequency of blood typing and blood matching tests as well as the harm caused by inappropriate blood transfusion to human lives.
Current Methods
There are several methods and devices for blood typing. They can be divided into two categories, the manual and automatic tests, according to the analysis method. The manual tests comprise of the plate test, tube test, and microplate test. In the last two, before blood determination, the sample needs to be centrifuged for extracting the erythrocytes from the whole blood sample, which requires approx. 15 min, and the analysis is performed with the erythrocytes only. The team performed the plate test using the blood typing kit available in the Human Anatomy laboratory at the S. K. Patel College of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Ganpat University, Mehsana, Gujarat. It has three antibody serums Anti A, Anti B, and Anti D. Blood of a classmate was pricked from the finger and three drops were taken on a slide. One drop of each serum was poured on one drop of blood. Then the antibody serums are mixed with the blood using corners of slide such that for mixing each serum with blood separate corner is used. Figure 1 shows the results of this plate test. Based on the Agglutination or Clumping of blood antigen and Anti serums, the blood group is obtained. Therefore, the results are obtained in about 5 min, and the test can be applied at any place. (Jose Fernandes, Sara Pimenta, Filomena O. Soares, & Graca Minas, 2015).
Figure 1.
Plate Test for blood typing
Drawbacks of Current Methods
In current methods, the analysis is based on mixing a blood sample (or erythrocytes according to the test type) with specific reagents, and, by visual inspection of the technical assistant. A large amount of slides and pricking needles are wasted, in merely a blood typing test, which on a larger scale increases the infectious and harmful bio-medical waste in pathology labs and clinics. However, they have some limitations, concerning to a fast and reliable operation at any place. The conventional and automatic systems available at clinical laboratories and hospitals reduce the subjectivity errors, once they produce a quantitative response (Jose Fernandes, Sara Pimenta, Filomena O. Soares, & Graca Minas, 2015).