Essay On Blood Typing

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Blood Types
Have you ever given blood? Have you ever been asked what type of blood you have? There are four different blood types, and it is very important to know which kind you have for medical reasons and for the benefit of others.
There are four different types of blood; A, B, AB, and O. This is called the ABO blood typing system. All four different types of blood serve the same purpose of transporting nutrients and oxygen throughout the human body. But what makes them different? Blood typing is based on the presence or absence of A and B cell antigens which trigger antibodies. Each kind of blood has it’s own antibody or immunoglobulin, which are proteins produced by the immune system to help stop intruders from invading your body. Therefore, …show more content…

This second antigen is called the Rh factor, which is named after the rhesus monkey in which this antigen was first discovered. The people who have the Rh factor are Rh positive, and those who do not have the Rh factor, are Rh negative. Blood does not normally have an antibody for the Rh factor. Nonetheless, if someone who is Rh negative is transfused with Rh positive blood antibodies begin to grow against the positive Rh factor. This can help as well as harm humans, especially pregnant women. If a Rh negative woman has a baby who is Rh positive, the first pregnancy will not cause a problem because her body has not yet produced antibodies for the Rh positive antigens. However, if the mother becomes pregnant with another Rh positive baby, the mother's antibodies for the Rh positive antibodies will cause agglutination and hemolysis or, clumping of red blood cells and destruction of red blood cells. If left untreated the baby will develop erythroblastosis fetalis, which can be fatal. This is why it is important for everyone, especially mothers to get a complete blood count.
A complete blood count is a common blood test that’s done for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons include to review your overall health, to diagnose a medical condition, to monitor a medical condition, and to monitor medical treatment. If the complete blood count test reveals an abnormal increase

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