I asked a friend yesterday of his blood group and i was shocked to know that he didn't really know much about his blood group. It's a common belief that little things that people tend to overlook later appears to be very important. Around the world today there are so many people who knows little or nothing about their blood group too.
To start with, what does the blood group of a person mean? It's simply a unique way of identifying what antigen(marker) is present on your Blood cells as well as the type of antibodies present in the body against other blood groups.
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There are various blood grouping systems such as;
- ABO blood grouping system
- Auberger blood grouping system
- Duffy blood grouping system
- Rh blood grouping system
- Kell blood grouping system
- Kidd blood grouping system
- Diego blood grouping system
- Bombay blood grouping system
- Lutheran blood grouping system etc
Of all these today, the most commonly used are the; - ABO blood grouping system
- Rh blood grouping system.
These 2 have both been found to be the most invaluable to medical science.
THE ABO BLOOD GROUPING SYSTEM
This system is one that every individual should know about, both old and young. It was discovered by an Austrian Scientist Karl Landsteiner in 1901, who was later given a Nobel Prize award in 1930 for this.
The ABO blood grouping system explained why clumping occurred with certain cases of blood transfusion and don't in others.
In this system there are 4blood groups namely;
- A group
- B group
- AB group
- O group
How they work
- Each of the blood groups above has a marker known as an antigen except the "O"group.
- Moreso, each of the blood groups have antibodies except for the "AB"group.
- The rule is that, for any blood group with a particular antigen there should not be an antibody with that same name too e.g Group A has antigen A, lacks antibody A and has antibody B, Group B has antigen B, lacks antibody B and has antibody A, Group AB has antigen A and antigen B but lacks as antibody A and antibody B, Group O lacks antigen A as well as antigen B but has antibody A and antibody B.
A person with blood group A can receive blood from another with blood group A or O, a person with blood group B can receive blood from another with blood group B or O, a person with blood group AB can receive blood from another with blood group A, B, AB, & O, a person with blood group O can receive blood from only a person with blood group O.
| Group | Antigen in RBC | Antibody in serum |
|---|---|---|
| A | A | Anti B |
| B | B | Anti A |
| AB | A and B | No antibody |
| O | No antigen | Anti A and Anti B |
Thus, it's obvious that the blood group owners of AB are universal recipients ie they can receive blood from anybody and the owners of blood group O are universal donors because they can donate blood to anyone without any fear of lethal reaction from graft rejection.
This therefore means that if i want to donate blood to someone, care must be taken so as not to trigger an incompatibility reaction.
THE RH BLOOD GROUPING SYSTEM
This is same as the ABO system except that it has a different antigen known as the antigen-D.
It's either present or absent. Individuals with the D-antigen have a "+" sign added to their ABO blood group e. g Mr. Gallen Jones is antigen-D positive and his ABO blood is "A", it therefore means that his blood group is A+
IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING YOUR BLOOD GROUP
The importance of knowing your Blood group is diverse but most importantly i will like to point out a few, viz;
- Medically, the blood group is used during blood transfusion in cases of emergency where an individual is actively loosing blood as in the case of a surgery or a road traffic accident casualty who needs to be transfused.
- Medicolegally, the blood group is an important parameter in settling issues of parental disputes.
- Socially, knowing your blood group is important for those in any of the blood donors club, who donate blood on a regular basis to save the lives of those in need of it
- Also, medically it gives couples a chance to prevent the complications of Rh incompatibility such as erythroblastosis fetalis, a lethal condition in Rh -ve mothers.
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