Daratumumab is a monoclonal antibody that targets CD38, a transmembrane protein expressed on many cells including RBCs and to a greater extent on myeloma cells. It has been used for treatment of ...multiple myeloma and autoimmune diseases. Transfusion management of patients on such therapy can be challenging as these drugs cross-react with RBC surface antigens and cause panreactivity.
A retrospective study of the 68 patients treated with anti-CD38 from 2018–2023 was carried out. Data regarding transfusion history and antibody screens were analyzed. Depending whether they had immunohematological work-up before or during the treatment- DAT, antibody screen (CAT and tube), RBC pheno/genotyping and serologic cross-matches (CAT and tube) were performed for each patient. All cases with positive CAT IAT were retested in LISS-tube and cross-matches were performed with phenotypically matched units in LISS-tube.
Antibody screen has shown panagglutination with all panel cells with low and variable agglutination intensity (weak to 2 +). Panagglutination remained positive for 1 − 6 months after drug cessation. Positive DAT was seen in 60,6% patients, while autocontrol was negative. Ficin treated panel-cells eliminated nonspecific reactivity. LISS-tube antibody screen and cross-matches were negative for all patients, apart from 3 patients who had preexisting antibodies. No new antibodies were detected during the course of the study.
Among study group there were no newly identified alloantibodies, meaning that the policy of transfusing them with matched RBCs and performing IAT/cross-matches in tube is a safe and effective policy according to the findings of this study.
ABO blood group is a risk factor for several cancers, but it is not clear yet whether the risk of breast cancer is greater in particular ABO blood type carriers. The aim of this case-control study ...was to examine the correlation between ABO blood group genotypes, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2 status as tumor grade markers (I-III), and the occurrence of breast cancer. The research included 59 patients with invasive breast cancer and 80 asymptomatic, healthy women, blood donors. Genomic DNA was isolated using QIAampDNA Blood Mini Kit (QIAGEN, Germany). Genotyping was performed using in-house polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers (PCR-SSP) method. Comparison of genotypes and phenotypes of ABO blood groups between patients and control group yielded p>0.05. There was no statistical significance of correlation between ABO genotypes/phenotypes in either patient group or control group. Testing the significance of different tumor grade occurrence, and ER, PR and HER2/neu status showed no statistical significance in the occurrence of a particular tumor grade, or in ER, PR and HER2/neu status as tumor markers in O1A1 genotype compared to non-O1A1 genotypes. Our study results confirmed that there was no correlation between ABO blood type genotypes/phenotypes and breast cancer in study groups.
Abstract Background Previous research on connection between the ABO blood group and bladder cancer has been based on determining the ABO phenotype. This specific research is extended to the molecular ...level, providing more information about particular ABO alleles. Aim To investigate the impact of the ABO blood group genotype or phenotype as a risk factor for urinary bladder cancer. Materials and Methods In the case–control study, we included 74 patients who underwent surgery for a urinary bladder tumor at the Urology Clinic, Clinical Hospital Centre Zagreb, in 2021 and 2022. The control group comprised 142 asymptomatic and healthy blood donors. ABO genotyping to five basic alleles was done using a polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primers. We compared ABO phenotypes, genotypes, and alleles between patients and the healthy controls and investigated their distribution according to the clinical and histological stage and recurrence rate. Results No statistically significant difference was found among the groups, nor for the observed disease stages in terms of the phenotype and genotype. At the allele level, the results show a significantly lower proportion of malignancy in O1 (p < 0.001), A1 (p < 0.001), and B (p = 0.013), and a lower proportion of metastatic disease in A2 (0%, p = 0.024). We also found significantly higher proportions of high-grade tumors in patients with O1 (71.4%, p < 0.001), A1 (70.1%, p = 0.019), of nonmuscle invasive tumors in patients with O1 (55.1%, p < 0.001), O2 (100%, p = 0.045), and recurrent tumors in patients with O1 (70.2%, p < 0.001) and A1 (74.2%, p = 0.007) alleles. Conclusion We did not find an association between the ABO blood group genotype or phenotype as a genetic risk factor for urinary bladder cancer. However, an analysis at the allelic level revealed a statistically significant association between certain alleles of the ABO blood group system and urinary bladder tumors, clinical or histological stage, and recurrence rate, respectively.
The aim of this study was to establish the impact of air transport on blood samples packaged with and without cooling elements and effect of outdoor temperature on sample quality. Venous samples from ...38 blood donors in winter and 36 in summer were tested for hemolysis and complete blood count. One tube
subject was kept in controlled conditions at +4 °C. Two sets of tubes were sent by plane from Zagreb to Brussels, one with and one without cooling elements, and another two sets were sent to London following the same principle. Packages with cooling elements were stored in controlled warehousing conditions at airports (+2 °C to +8 °C), whereas packages without cooling elements were stored in ambient warehouse conditions. Data loggers were used for temperature monitoring. Our research revealed statistically significant differences in several hematologic parameters when comparing the samples stored in controlled laboratory conditions and those transported by plane. These differences were more pronounced in the samples transported during the summer. Transport conditions without cooling elements had additional negative impact on the sample quality. Transport of samples using cooling elements and controlled warehousing conditions at airports are sometimes not sufficient to maintain laboratory storage conditions.
Summary
Background
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a potentially life-threatening condition that mainly affects the people of advanced age. While certain blood group phenotypes (non‑O blood group) are ...known risk factors for the development of venous thromboembolism (VTE), there is no research which investigated the association of blood group genotypes with severity of PE. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of ABO blood group genotypes among the population of patients with PE and to investigate the correlation of the pulmonary embolism severity index (PESI) score to specific ABO blood group genotypes.
Material and methods
In this cross-sectional study 74 patients with PE diagnosed using CT pulmonary angiography were included and 303 blood donors without VTE or congenital thrombophilia participated as a control group. After isolation of genomic DNA ABO blood group genotype was determined using the polymerase chain reaction sequence-specific amplification (PCR-SSP) method.
Results
We observed a significantly higher frequency of A1B and BB genotypes in patients with PE compared to healthy individuals (A1B 14.9% vs. 4.3%,
P
< 0.001; BB 5.4% vs. 0.7%,
P
= 0.004), while the O1O1 genotype was significantly less frequent in patients (24.3% vs. 37.3%,
P
= 0.036). Analyzing the severity of the clinical presentation according to the PESI score, we did not find a correlation between the severity of the clinical presentation and a certain blood type genotype.
Conclusion
Patients with A1B and BB blood type genotype were at increased risk for developing pulmonary embolism, while patients with O1O1 genotype had a significantly lower risk of developing PE.
During a two-year period (2001-2003), 464 patients were treated for tuberculosis at Jordanovac Department for Lung Diseases in Croatia. Besides pulmonary tuberculosis in 97.7% of patients, patients ...were also treated for tuberculous pleurisy (0.9%), tuberculous laryngitis (0.6%), tuberculous meningitis (0.2%), tuberculous pericarditis (0.2%) and urogenital tuberculosis (0.4%). Out of the total number of patients, 57.3% declared themselves to be active smokers (men were predominant and made up to 80.8%) and 20.9% to be active alcohol consumers. Both risk factors, i.e. smoking and alcohol consumption, were present in 15.1% of all patients. The most common comorbidities were diabetes mellitus (30.4%), cardiac diseases (11.2%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (8.0%). Lung carcinoma was the most common malignant disease (n=51), with
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
isolated in 33% of them. Seventy-two of 464 (15.5%) patients had recurrences of tuberculosis. Of these, 30.5% had one of the risk factors (20.8% were smokers and 9.7% consumed alcohol), while 32.5% of patients had both risk factors. In conclusion, cigarette smoking was proved to be the most significant risk factor for development of pulmonary tuberculosis and its recurrence.
The prevalence of ABO alleles is different in different populations, and many studies have shown a correlation between the occurrences of some diseases and different genotypes of ABO blood groups. ...The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a significant association between psychiatric syndromes and ABO blood groups.
This case-control study involved 156 psychiatric patients and 303 healthy, unrelated, voluntary blood donors. Genomic DNA was isolated from blood on a QIAcube device using a QIAamp DNA Blood mini QIAcube kit. ABO genotyping on five basic ABO alleles was performed using allele-specific polymerase chain reaction analysis.
Compared with healthy subjects, a significantly higher proportion of psychiatric patients had AB blood group (χ
=9.359, df=3, p=0.025) and, accordingly, a significantly higher incidence of A1B genotype (χ
=8.226, df=3, p=0.042). The odds ratio showed that psychiatric disorders occur almost three times more frequently in carriers of AB group compared to other blood groups. However, no statistically significant difference was found in the distribution of ABO blood groups among patients with different psychiatric diagnoses. Likewise, no correlations were found between ABO blood groups and other characteristics of the psychiatric patients (sex, psychiatric heredity, somatic comorbidity, suicidality).
The results of this study support the hypothesis of an association between psychiatric disorders and ABO blood groups. The probability is that psychiatric disorders will occur almost three times more frequently in carriers of AB group compared to other ABO blood groups in the Croatian population.
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that is characterized by reversible obstruction of airways, bronchial hyper-reactivity and airway remodeling. The etiology of asthma is multifactorial, with ...inheritance playing an important role. The aim of our study was to investigate the importance of biomarkers of asthma and the role of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) gene as a genetic factor that could be involved in the pathogenesis of asthma. The research was conducted at Jordanovac University Department for Lung Diseases and Croatian Institute of Transfusion Medicine. The research included 149 patients with asthma and 89 healthy individuals. We collected demographic data of both study groups, determined asthma severity using GINA guidelines, and the values of biomarkers and PAI-1 by using laboratory techniques. Based on the results, we concluded that patients with allergic phenotype of asthma were younger, had better lung function and higher levels of IgE. By observing FeNO values, we were not able to distinguish asthmatic patients that had been diagnosed with obstruction of airways from asthmatic patients with normal lung function because FeNO indicates the inflammatory component of disease. The 4G/5G polymorphism of PAI-1 gene did not show any statistically significant difference in the distribution of 4G/4G, 4G/5G and 5G/5G between the group of asthmatic patients and control group.
Introduction
Exposure to normal or variably expressed RhD antigens in an antigen‐negative individual can elicit an immune response and lead to the formation of clinically significant anti‐D ...alloantibodies. We present the case of anti‐D alloimmunization by DEL variant missed in routine blood donor screening.
Material and Methods
Blood donors were typed for D antigen using the direct serologic micromethod. Nonreactive samples were confirmed in the indirect antiglobulin method with an IgM/IgG anti‐D monoclonal reagent. Genomic DNA was extracted using a commercial QIAamp DNA Blood Mini kit on the QIAcube device (Qiaqen, Germany). RHD genotyping was performed using the PCR‐SSP genotyping kits‐ Ready Gene D weak, Ready Gene D weak screen, Ready Gene CDE, and Ready Gene D AddOn (Inno‐Train, Germany). Unidentified alleles were sent for DNA genome sequencing.
Results
After identifying DEL positive blood units in RhD negative blood donor pool, a look‐back study was performed to determine if their previous donations caused alloimmunization in recipients. Out of 40 D negative recipients, one developed anti‐D alloantibody after 45 days. The patient did not receive other RhD positive blood products. Blood donor typed D negative in direct and indirect agglutination method. RHD screening was positive, but RHD genotyping and DNA sequencing showed no mutation indicating the normal genotype.
Conclusion
Currently used methods in RHD genotyping are insufficient to identify many variant alleles, especially intronic variations. We suggest additional gene investigation including yet unexplored regions of regulation and intron regions to justify our serological finding.
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