There were a limited number of studies reported on RBC alloimmunization in CLD patients, with the incidence ranging from 5.3% to 7.4%. Previous studies in Malaysia showed the incidence of irregular antibodies detected in antibody-screening positive cases ranged from 0.76% to 1.4% of pre-transfusion samples. In Malaysia, multiple ethnicities have caused genetic heterogeneity among the population, which in turn leads to a wide variation of antibody specificity. Therefore, phenotype matching for Rh blood groups should be provided for CLD patients requiring blood transfusions in our center to prevent RBC alloimmunization.

However, the majority of them developed clinically significant RBC alloantibodies, mostly from the Rh blood group. Our center has a low prevalence of RBC alloimmunization among CLD patients. There was no significant factor association of RBC alloimmunization among CLD patients identified. The most common alloantibody identified belonged to the Rh blood group, anti-E (35.7%) and anti-c (14.3%), followed by the MNS blood group, anti-Mi a (17.9%). Most patients developed a single alloantibody (83.3%). Higher rates of alloimmunization were seen in females (7.1%) and patients with autoimmune hepatitis (11.1%). Twenty-four patients were reported to have RBC alloimmunization, resulting in an overall prevalence of 5.4%.

The most common causes of CLD in our center are viral hepatitis (62.1%) and metabolic liver disease (25.4%). A total of 441 CLD patients were included in our study, with the majority being elderly, with the mean age of patients 57.9 (SD ± 12.1) years old, male (65.1%) and Malays (92.1%). Clinical and laboratory data were retrieved and statistically analyzed.

This is a case-control study involving 441 patients with CLD who were being treated at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia and subjected to pre-transfusion testing from April 2012 until April 2022. We aimed to determine the prevalence of RBC alloimmunization and associated factors among chronic liver disease (CLD) patients in our center. Variations in the frequency of alloimmunization have been noted among different patient populations. Red blood cell (RBC) alloimmunization is an important complication of blood transfusion.

Spss statistics 22 license code