The Blood Type Of Blood

1105 Words3 Pages

Introduction

There are a lot of important details and information healthcare provider should know about patient before performing any procedure or prescribing drug. One of such piece of information is a blood type. First blood groups were discovered by Karl Landsteiner in 1901. Landsteiner was researching the fact that some blood transfusions were successful and other could be potentially lethal. He made a research where he demonstrated that the serum from one people lead to agglutination of blood cells from other in some cases, but in others agglutination did not occur. In his experiments he discovered first three types of blood A, B and O. Later Landsteiner and American researcher Alexander Wiener discovered new blood type Rh, which was reported in 1940, 1941. (Farhud, 2013)
Blood type is defined by presence or absence of certain antigens on surface of red blood cells (RBCs) named antigens A, B, O or Rh (D). Depending on which antigen is present on plasma membrane of RBCs person will have certain antibodies present in plasma. Blood type A has antibodies for type B blood. Type B blood has anti-A antibodies, and type O blood has anti A and B antibodies. Knowing information about blood type of patient is extremely important during blood transfusion because antibodies for certain blood type attack antigens present on RBC of foreign blood causing agglutination - clumping of RBCs. So blood cells with antigen A on their surface membrane will be affected by antibodies A, RBCs with antigen B will react with antibodies B and RBCs with antigen Rh will react with Rh antibodies. If recipient with type A will be given blood which contains antibodies A (types B and O) agglutination will occur and lethal outcome is possible. It is important t...

... middle of paper ...

...oncluded to be AB+. Table 2 summarizes conclusion made in this experiment.
Table 2
Sample 1 Sample 3 Sample 4 Sample 5
Blood type A+ B+ B- AB+

Overall blood typing techniques were studied during this lab and students became familiar with blood types and the way to identify them. All members of study group followed the procedure in order to avoid cross contamination so the results are considered to be accurate. This lab provided great visualization of agglutination and improved understanding of this process. Overall blood typing has wide application in healthcare setting. Examples can be blood typing done before blood transfusion, during pregnancies or blood typing for research and better understanding of blood related disorders. Such a wide application of these techniques makes them important to study by all students who is going to pursue any career in medicine.

More about The Blood Type Of Blood

Open Document