ABO and Rh Blood Typing Using the Eldon Card Method Assignment

Introduction

The ABO blood system and the Rh blood system are the most critical methods of categorization in transfusion medicine. Blood groups, therefore, are defined by the presence or the absence of certain antigens on the membrane of red cells (Li and Guo, 2022). The ABO system categorizes blood into four types: A, B, O and AB depending on the presence of antigens and the Rh system classifies blood as positive or negative in terms of the Rh (D) antigen. There is no doubt that knowledge of the individual’s blood group plays an essential role in medical practice to save a patient’s life in case of blood transfusions, and transplantations of organs and to avoid unfavorable effects like hemolytic reactions. Incompatible transfusions can cause severe immune reactions, so these kids must have accurate blood typing. This practical employed the Eldon card method, a fast and efficacious method for recognising blood groups based on the condition where agglutination reactions occur when blood is tested with specific anti-sera (Sklavounos et al. 2021). Further, the primary objectives were to determine blood type as correctly as possible and to understand the meaning of this determination in clinical practice.

Methods

This is a qualitative as well as semi-quantitative procedure identified as the Eldon card method for blood grouping based on the ABO & Rh systems (Okolo et al. 2024). Based on the mechanism of agglutination in the sense that specific pre-immobilized antibodies (anti-A, anti-B, and anti-D) located at the test field of the card combine with antigens in the red blood cells. Certain antibodies react with blood by the process of agglutination if the correlative antigens are present: when these antibodies mix with blood, clumping takes place (Kretsch et al. 2023). This reaction is practised to identify one’s blood group system according to the ABO system and Rh factor.

Figure 1: Blood typing using Eldon Cards

The process is carried over a number of phases. First, clean the fingertip with a disinfectant and then prick the skin with a lancet to get a blood drop. Upon completing each test and after reading the result, a droplet of distilled water is placed in each test field to wet the dried reagents (Younes et al. 2023). With two different sticks, the blood is spread evenly over the test field and then mixed by squashing it to make the agglutination occur. Such a card is tilted slightly in order to mix and give time for the reactions to take place. After 40 seconds to 1 minute Al and Ms are identified depending on whether there is clumping in the respective fields or not. For instance, if there is agglutination in the anti-A and anti-D field it shows A+ blood, if there is no agglutination in any field other than the control then the blood is O-ve (Kruse et al. 2021).

This method can be described in many ways including; fast, economical, and non-fixed hence suitable for blood typing in emergencies. However, its use is challenging since it presents cross-linking problems and the patterns’ interpretations. Flow cytometry may be required for laboratory rest confirmation in cases that occur in clinical practice.

Results and Discussion

Results

Figure 2: Determine blood group through Eldon card analysis

According to the Eldon card analysis, the patient should belong to blood type B negative. This was done by agglutination in the anti-B and anti-D fields only as the anti-A field did not react at all due to the absence of antigen A. Those that have B-negative blood can only receive blood from B-negative and O-negative donors as the Rh antigen is not present in their blood and to avoid any immune reaction (Dangi and Shah, 2023). On the other hand, they can in a way help B-negative or AB-negative patients, because their blood does not contain Rh factor which may cause sometimes a severe problem called Rh incompatibility.

The exact matching of the donor and recipient is very important in avoiding instances of hemolytic transfusion reaction, whereby the antibodies in the recipient’s plasma destroy donor's RBC. Such reactions can cause agglutination and hemolysis and severe complications as renal failure or death. It is also used in matching transplantation and incompatibility between maternal and fetal Rhesus in pregnant women (Petroff et al. 2022). Consequently, precise blood typing is one of the critical conditions in clinical work to avoid adverse consequences and increase patients’ chances of positive treatment outcomes in emergencies.

Discussions

It is worth noting that apart from the specific method used in the process of blood typing, called the Eldon card, gel electrophoresis and column agglutination technology also exist. Gel electrophoresis acts on the basis of size and charge in blood distinction, whereas column agglutination is based on the antigen-antibody interaction in microtubes filled with gel are accurate, and automated (Bianca and Fedorca, 2022). Another tool called molecular testing PCR can determine specific blood group genes, which can also be accurate even in complicated cases (Alketbi, 2023). Cross-matching tests should be done before blood transfusion to ascertain compatibility between the donor and the recipient. Furthermore, serological testing also rules out some transmissible diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis B&C Finally, blood is tested for haemoglobin levels and antibody storage quality which is important when used for transfusion. These methods when used together improve on diagnostic accuracy and avoid complications that come with reactions during transfusion making the two important tools in modern healthcare practices.

Conclusion

This experiment was able to confirm the blood group as B-negative through the Eldon card method giving the efficiency and simplicity of this method. There was a stress on the practical applicability of blood typing to operations in healthcare facilities as it is capable of making accurate matching thus avoiding dangerous transfusion complications to occur to the patient. As a result, the identification of blood to be used for a transfusion by the Eldon card is convenient but for deeper blood screening, other methods and other tests are needed. Altogether, it improves the accuracy of diagnostic methods, thus improving secure transfusion and overall health results.

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References

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Bianca, B.I. and Fedorca, A., 2022. Principles of capillary electrophoresis–A small synthesis. J Bio Med Open Access, 3(1), p.127.

Dangi, S. and Shah, V.V., 2023. pradnya B. Saragade and Amrut A. Swami, 2023. A Cross Sectional Study to Evaluate Perception of Rh‐Negative Blood Group’s Importance among the Medical Undergraduates having Rh‐Negative Blood Groups. Res. J. Med. Sci, 17, pp.903-906.

Kretsch, C.M., Alonso, F.H., Buktenica, M. and Heller, M.C., 2023. Agglutination and hemolytic crossmatching to determine transfusion reaction differences between large and small breed goats. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 37(4), pp.1594-1602.

Kruse, R.L., Huang, Y., Lee, A., Zhu, X., Shrestha, R., Laeyendecker, O., Littlefield, K., Pekosz, A., Bloch, E.M., Tobian, A.A. and Wang, Z.Z., 2021. A hemagglutination-based semiquantitative test for point-of-care determination of SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels. Journal of clinical microbiology, 59(12), pp.10-1128.

Li, H.Y. and Guo, K., 2022. Blood group testing. Frontiers in medicine, 9, p.827619.

Okolo, A.A., Aboloje, E., Ekpebe, P. and Abedi, H., 2024. Acceptability and affordability of point-of-care test in determining ABO and Rhesus D blood group of pregnant women at EkuGeneral Hospital, EKU, DeltaState, Nigeria. JOURNAL OF AFRICAN NEONATOLOGY, 2(1), pp.10-14.

Petroff, M.G., Nguyen, S.L. and Ahn, S.H., 2022. Fetal‐placental antigens and the maternal immune system: Reproductive immunology comes of age. Immunological Reviews, 308(1), pp.25-39.

Sklavounos, A.A., Lamanna, J., Modi, D., Gupta, S., Mariakakis, A., Callum, J. and Wheeler, A.R., 2021. Digital microfluidic hemagglutination assays for blood typing, donor compatibility testing, and hematocrit analysis. Clinical chemistry, 67(12), pp.1699-1708.

Younes, R., Spinella, P.C., Shea, S.M., Bailey‐Kroll, L., Neal, M.D., Leeper, C. and Yazer, M.H., 2023. A rapid ABO and RhD test demonstrates high fidelity to blood bank testing for RhD typing. Transfusion, 63, pp.S208-S212.