Evaluation of Alloimmunization Rate and Necessity of Blood Type and Screening Test among Patients Candidate for Elective Surgery

Alloimmunization is a reaction of the immune system to foreign antigens. For prevention of alloantibody formation, performing of type and screen test is necessary on a patient''s blood specimen as part of pre-transfusion testing. In this cross-sectional study, type and screen test done for 1420 patients with elective surgery for detection of alloantibody in Imam Khomeini hospital in Ardabil. Prevalence of alloantibody in this population was 0.92% (13 patients) and 99.2% (1407 patients) showed no alloantibody in their serum. The most prevalent alloantibody was anti-K, anti-E and anti-c. No significant relationship observed between sex and alloimmunization rate. performance of type and screen test play an important role in reducing the rate of alloimmunization, and also, could reduce the demands for blood reservation in hospital blood banks.