Blood Typing Lab

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of the lab is to identify the different types of blood for blood transfusion. The lab will enable in identifying the criteria used to determine blood compatibility for effective transfusion.

Introduction

Blood typing is applied to ascertain the blood group that can safely be donated to another individual bloodstream during transfusion. The purpose of blood typing is to see if the blood sample has a rhesus factor on the red blood cells/erythroblastosis fetalis.

The name of a blood type is derived from the antigen present in the blood sample’s red blood cells. Normally, blood is grouped according to the ABO blood typing system and the Rh system. A, B, AB, and O are the four major blood types. The type of an individual blood group is determined by the type of antigen present in the red blood cells. An individual with blood type A has antigen A while a person with blood group B has antigen B.  A and B are the two antigens. A person with blood group has both antigen A and B, while an individual with blood group O has no antigen in their blood. Similarly, a person with blood group a with have antigen B in their blood, while a person with blood type B will have antibody A in their red blood cells. An individual with blood type AB has no antibodies, and blood type B has antibody A and B (Hennager, 2010).

A blood sample is mixed with an antibody A, B, or rhesus protein during blood typing. If agglutination takes place, then the blood sample reacted with the antibody. The type of antibody the red blood cells react with will determine the type of blood. For example, if the unknown blood sample reacts with anti-B serum, then the unknown blood sample is type B. if the unknown blood sample reacts with anti-A serum, then the unknown blood type is A.  If the unknown sample does not react with either A or B antibody, that means that the blood group does not have an antigen, and the blood group is identified as blood group O.

Rhesus factor is a protein found in the red blood cells, and the typing for the protein is done the same way as ABO typing. Rh+ means that the person’s blood sample has the Rh protein while the Rh- means that it does not have Rh protein.

A blood transfusion will only be successful if the donated blood’s antibodies do not match the donor’s antigen. If they match, then the transfusion will not be successful as the immune system recognizes the donated red blood cells as foreign. The donated blood may fail to match due to the blood type mismatch or the Rh factor (Gordon Betts et al., 2013).

The practical hypothesizes that a person with blood type O- can donate blood to individuals with all blood types, while a person with blood type AB+ can receive blood from individuals with any blood type. Anti-serum is the dependent variable, while the antigen is the independent variable. The reaction between a recipient’s antigen and the donor’s antibodies during blood transfusion leads to agglutination.

Materials

The materials required for a blood typing test include:

• Four different blood samples in dropper containers.
• Four Petri dishes, each with three compartments.
• The anti-A serum, anti-B serum, and anti-Rh serum.
• Timing clock.
• Droppers.

Methods

Blood samples were obtained from the bloodstream of the four patients presented to the EMTs. The samples were labeled as patient #1, patient #2, patient #3, and patient #4. A drop of each sample was poured on the compartment labeled A of each petri dish. The procedure was repeated for each of the four samples in the three compartments. Anti-A serum was added to compartments labeled A, and the process was repeated for each of the compartments. The samples were allowed to dry for 20 minutes. The observations were noted and recorded in table 1 below.

Results

The results for the four samples collected from the four patients are as follows

The observation results table

Table 1: A table showing the reaction that took place between the patient blood samples and the different anti-serums

Blood typing analysis table

Table 2: A table showing the identified types of the blood of the patient, the blood type that each patient can receive, and the sample available that each of the four patients will receive.

Analysis and Discussion

The lab case study involved testing blood samples of four patients who had been presented to the medical facility by the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) after they had been involved in an accident. The four patients had wounds and wounds and had lost much blood. The emergency room (ER) doctor recommends that each patient requires a blood transfusion right away. The blood bank at the hospital is experiencing a shortage of blood supply as there is only a pint of each of A+, AB-, B-, and O+ blood types and does not have any other type of blood in stock.

The first task involves identifying each patient’s blood group through a process known as blood typing. The method allows the identification of the blood to ascertain their compatibility with the available blood sample. The four-accident patient’s blood group was identified by anti-serum of A, B, and AB. The blood sample that reacted with the anti-serum, thus agglutination, implies that the blood samples did not match. After the testing, the blood of the four patients was subjected to blood typing. The blood type of the first patient did not react with the anti-A serum and the Rh factor. However, it reacted with anti-B serum. The blood group was identified as a blood group identified as type B-.

For the second patient, the blood sample underwent agglutination with anti- A and the Rh anti-serum. There was no reaction between the blood sample and anti-B serum.  The sample was identified as blood group A+. A blood sample that does not react with anti-B serum means that the blood sample has antibody B meaning that the blood sample is A. agglutination between the blood sample and the anti-RH serum means that the blood sample is positive. Thus, the blood sample is identified as A+.

The third patient’s blood sample underwent agglutination with anti-A and anti-B serum but had not reacted to the anti-Rh serum. The implication is that the patient has both antigen A and antigen B but is Rh-negative. Thus the blood group is identified as AB-. The fourth patient sample underwent agglutination only with Anti-Rh serum, implying that the person’s blood has no antigen, and it is Rh-positive.  The blood sample of the patient is identified as O+.

Among the four patients, none of the patients can be considered as a universal donor. A universal donor is a person who has blood group O-. The blood group has no antigen and thus cannot react with any other blood group. Therefore, none of the four patients can donate blood to all the four patients if the Hospital blood bank runs out of the blood. Outside donors would have to be sought.

A person with blood type AB+ is a universal recipient as they have no antibodies. Again, none of the four patients is a universal recipient, as none has blood type AB+. Patient #2 has blood group A+, with antigen A and antibody B and Rhesus factor positive.  For patient #3, the blood group is AB- meaning that the patient has not antibody and does not have a Rhesus factor. Patient #1 has blood type B-. a person with blood type B- can donate blood to a person with blood group B-, B+, AB-, and AB+. Patient #4 has blood group O+, meaning that the patient has both antibodies A and antibody B, and thus they cannot receive blood from a person with blood group A, B, or AB. They can only receive blood from a person with blood group O+ and O-.

Conclusion

Blood clotting testing is a method that can be used to determine the type of blood. Clotting is also known as agglutination due to antigen-antibody reaction. The sample of blood is divided into three different samples. To each of the samples, anti-A, anti- B, and anti-Rh serum are added to each of the samples. The samples are left for about 2 minutes. If clotting occurs on all the samples, the blood sample has antigen A, antigen B, and is Rh-positive, and thus the blood type is AB-. Similarly, if no clotting occurs, that means that the sample has no antigen, and thus the blood type is O-. clotting is effective the method of determining the type of blood sample by the use of anti-serums. Future experiments should focus on identifying the other antibodies present in a blood sample for perfect matching the blood of the donor and the recipient.

References

Hennager, D. J. (2010). Blood Types. Blood Types. Cedar Rapids, IA: Kirkwood Community College.

Gordon Betts, J., Young, K. A., Wise, J. A., Johnson, E., Poe, B., Kruse, D., Oksana, K., Johnson, J.E., Womble, M., DeSaix, P. (2013). 18.6 Blood Typing. In Anatomy and Physiology. Houston, TX: OpenStax. Retrieved from https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology/pages/18-6-blood-typing

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