People with sickle cell disorder and thalassemia (SCD/THAL) often require regular blood transfusions as part of their treatment. Red blood cells have surface molecules known as blood groups and we match blood transfusions to the patient’s major blood groups. Minor blood groups are usually not matched partly as the current testing method is expensive and not able to test all these groups. The mismatch between patients and the donor’s minor blood groups can cause life-threatening reactions, making it more difficult to find compatible blood for their future transfusions.
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), as part of the Blood transfusion Genomics Consortium (BGC), developed a cost-efficient, high-throughput DNA test detecting all blood groups permitting better blood matching in the future. The same test also detects the tissue (HLA) and platelet (HPA) types at the same time. NHS England has provided funding to NHSBT to provide this new test for all patients with SCD/THAL for a year, from Autumn 2023. We would like to use the DNA samples from 800 SCD/THAL patients already enrolled in the NIHR BioResource to evaluate the DNA test and the integrated analysis package (IAP) with real-world DNA samples obtained from NHS patients.
