Work overview

Section 03 of 05

Results

Prevalence of Alloimmunization Among Patients With Transfusion-Dependent Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Disease in Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain

Jaffer Altooq, Zainab Sultan, Zainab Harb, Fatema Abdulla, Maryam AlOmran, and Sharaf Almeshal · 2026

Contents

Section 03 of 05

  1. 01Introduction
  2. 02Materials and methods
  3. 03Results
  4. 04Discussion
  5. 05Conclusions
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Work overview

Section 3 of 5

Results

Jaffer Altooq, Zainab Sultan, Zainab Harb, Fatema Abdulla, Maryam AlOmran, and Sharaf Almeshal · about 2 minutes

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A total of 311 transfusion-dependent patients were included, comprising 203 (65.3%) with SCD and 108 (34.7%) with thalassemia. The overall age range was 15-84 years, with a mean age of 38.33 years. Of the total cohort, 185 (59.5%) were male, and 126 (40.5%) were female (Table 1).

Diagnosis | Gender | Total
Female | Male
Sickle cell disease | 73 (57.9%) | 130 (70.3%) | 203 (65.3%)
Thalassemia | 53 (42.1%) | 55 (29.7%) | 108 (34.7%)
Total | 126 (100.0%) | 185 (100.0%) | 311 (100.0%)

ABO and Rh typing revealed that blood group O was the most prevalent at 169 (54.3%), followed by B at 67 (21.5%), A at 65 (20.9%), and AB at 10 (3.2%). The vast majority of patients were Rh-positive, 297 (95.5%), while 14 (4.5%) were Rh-negative. Among the 14 Rh-negative individuals, 7 (50.0%) belonged to blood group O, 6 (42.9%) to group B, and 1 (7.1%) to group A, with none in group AB (Table 2).

Blood group (ABO) | Rh factor | Total
Negative | Positive
A | 1 (7.1%) | 64 (21.5%) | 65 (20.9%)
AB | 0 (0.0%) | 10 (3.4%) | 10 (3.2%)
B | 6 (42.9%) | 61 (20.5%) | 67 (21.5%)
O | 7 (50.0%) | 162 (54.5%) | 169 (54.3%)
Total | 14 (100.0%) | 297 (100.0%) | 311 (100.0%)

The overall prevalence of red cell alloimmunization, as determined by the IAT, was 46 (14.8%). When stratified by disease type, alloimmunization was significantly more frequent among patients with SCD, with 41 out of 203 (20.2%) testing positive for alloantibodies, compared with only 5 out of 108 (4.6%) among patients with thalassemia. A statistically significant difference between the two disease groups was confirmed using chi-square analysis (p < 0.001). Among the 46 alloimmunized patients, 27 (58.7%) were male, and 19 (41.3%) were female. SCD accounted for the majority of alloimmunized cases at 41 (89.1%), of whom 24 were male and 17 were female. The remaining five (10.9%) alloimmunized patients had thalassemia, comprising three males and two females. These findings suggest a slightly higher proportion of alloimmunization among males, although both sexes were clearly affected.