Abstract
Background: The ABO and Rh blood group system is among the most important systems in blood transfusion practice due its vital role in successful process of the transfusion between donors and recipients. Determination of this system in term of frequency in healthy individuals is important to keep blood bank inventory effectively managed and operated. This study was aimed to determine the frequency and distribution of ABO and Rh blood group patterns among voluntary blood donors attended the tertiary healthcare hospital namely Alnoor hospital located in Makkah city, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: A total number of 5000 samples were recruited for this study to determine the frequency of ABO-Rh blood group system in healthy individuals following obtaining the ethical approval. ABO and Rh blood groups were determined using the test tube method with blood group reagents: anti-A, anti-B, and anti-D.
Results: Male participation comprised the majority of the total samples with 99.28% while female participation comprised 0.72% only. The young-adulthood age categories represented the highest number of participation with 28.86% and 21.62% for the age groups 26 - 30 years and 31 - 35 years respectively. Saudi participants represented 63.94% while the remaining (36.06%) represented Non-Saudi of the total samples. The distribution of ABO and Rh blood group among Saudi and Non-Saudi showed similarity in the frequency ranking where blood group O+ showed a prominence frequency followed by A+, B+, AB+, O-, A-, B-and AB-with exact percentages of 43.8%, 26.28%, 17.66%, 4.32%, 4.14%, 2.02%, 1.62% and 0.16% respectively.
Conclusion: The results of this study showed a predominance distribution of O blood group while AB remained the rarest group as shown by other previous studies performed in other Saudi Arabian cities and regions. Such study is important in transfusion practice to provide continuous support of blood components to the needed patients.