Molecular immunohaematology round table discussions at the AABB Annual Meeting, Denver 2013

DEL in China: the D antigen among serologic RhD-negative individuals

BACKGROUND

Providing RhD-negative red cell transfusions is a challenge in East Asia, represented by China, Korea, and Japan, where the frequency of RhD-negative is the lowest in the world.

FINDINGS

Among 56 ethnic groups in China, the RhD-negative frequency in Han, the prevalent ethnicity, is 0.5% or less, similar to most other ethnic groups. The Uyghur ethnic group has the highest reported RhD-negative frequency of up to 4.7%, as compared to 13.9% in the US. However, an estimated 7.15 million RhD-negative people live in China. The RhD-negative phenotype typically results from a loss of the entire RHD gene, causing the lack of the RhD protein and D antigen. The DEL phenotype carries a low amount of the D antigen and types as RhD-negative in routine serology. The DEL prevalence in RhD-negative individuals averages 23.3% in the Han, 17% in the Hui and 2.4% in the Uyghur ethnicities. The Asian type DEL, also known as RHD*DEL1 and RHD:c.1227G > A allele, is by far the most prevalent among the 13 DEL alleles observed in China.

CONCLUSION

The purpose of this review is to summarize the data on DEL and to provide a basis for practical strategy decisions in managing patients and donors with DEL alleles in East Asia using molecular assays.

An outcome-based review of an accredited Specialist in Blood Banking (SBB) program: 25 years and counting

CONCLUSIONS

Specialist in Blood Banking (SBB) programs play an important role in preparing technologists to become leaders and contributors to the field of transfusion medicine through dedicated education and training. The SBB program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center has graduated 55 students since 1994 with an overall pass rate of 96 percent for the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) SBB examination. Graduates hold positions in a variety of transfusion medicine-related fields, with hospitals, blood centers, and Immunohematology Reference Laboratories being the most common categories of employer. Projects completed as part of the program added to transfusion medicine knowledge as evidenced by publications and awards. Almost half of all projects completed led to publications (49%), and greater than 50 percent of submissions have been selected for the AABB Future Leaders Scholarship (previously known as AABB Fenwal Scholarship Award). The students have completed over 40 program value-added opportunities. This information was available for retrieval and review. In this review, we analyzed data for the last 25 years from the SBB program at the NIH Clinical Center on program statistics, student accomplishments (such as publications in peer-reviewed journals), program value-added opportunities (such as other publications and audits performed with our Quality Assurance office), and job procurement. The collected, reviewed, and organized data provided a useful internal self-assessment to review the history of our program and head into the future.