Determination of Weak “D” Antigen among Rhesus Negative Pakistani Blood Donors

Objective: Determination of weak “D” antigen, to highlight the importance of “Du Testing” among the Rhesus-negative blood donors. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration: Study was conducted at department of Hematology, Allama Iqbal Medical College (AIMC), Lahore, during the period of January 2013 and December 2015. Materials Methods: Five different tertiary care and four secondary care hospitals of Lahore and six different institutes/universities including individuals visiting to blood banks for determination of their blood groups were included in study. Two ml of blood sample was collected in EDTA-containing vial and analyzed for determination of ABO/Rhesus (Rh) typing; all Rh-negative samples were further processed for the Du Testing according to standard protocol and commercially available monoclonal antibody. Results: Out of total 55,874 participants only 8.0% (n = 4,454) were Rh-negative. Among these Rh-negative samples, 99.0% (n = 4,410) samples were negative even after “Du Testing”. Only 0.98% (n = 44) were weak “D” positive, in Rh-negative samples. Conclusion: every Rh-negative individual should be processed for the detection of Weak “D” antigen by “Du Testing” as it may not be detected by immediate spin tube method.