Frequency of ABO and Rhesus Blood Groups: A Study from a Rural Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in India

Background: Up till now about 400 red cells antigen have been identified. The majority are inherited by Mendelian fashion. The ABO blood group system was first to be identified and Rh blood group system was the 4th one, both are most important for blood transfusion purposes. Objective: This study was conducted to determine the frequency of ABO and Rhesus (Rh) blood groups in a rural tertiary care teaching hospital in India. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at Blood Transfusion Center of Pravara Rural Teaching Hospital Loni, Maharashtra, India over a period of five years (1st January 2006 to 31st December 2010). Results were analysed by using percentage and 95% confidence intervals were taken to define normal range. Results: Out of 11554 subjects, 11063 (95.75%) were male and 491 (4.25%) were female subjects. The commonest ABO blood group was B present in 31.89% (CL 30.38% - 33.41%) followed by O in 30.99% (CL 29.48% - 32.54%), A in 28.38% (CL 26.84% - 29.96%) and AB in 8.72% (CL 7.60% - 10.64%) donors; while in Rhesus system, 95.36% (CL 94.95% - 95.74%) donors were Rh-positive and 4.64% (CL 3.04% - 6.80%) were Rh-negative. Conclusion: In the present study, the frequency of Rh-negative blood group is O, B, A, and AB in both gender. Whereas the most common Rh-positive in male and female subjects are B, O, A, AB, and O, B, A, and AB respectively.