| This is the second issue, the first one can be | | | | Normally, there would be no problem if a |
| found here: Blood type - Issue One - Science | | | | RhD-negative woman marries a RhD-positive man. |
| Simplifed | | | | Now they have a baby, a healthy one, a problem |
| It's been two months since the first issue, and I | | | | may arise. We know that (as written above) a |
| hope that you still got something about blood | | | | RhD-negative individual, after the exposure to |
| types in your mind. Nevertheless, I will review | | | | RhD-positive, can start having anti-RhD. |
| some concepts that are going to be used in this | | | | Now they want to have another child, but this |
| issue: | | | | time the mother is LIKELY to have anti-RhD in |
| Antigen - Substance that defines your blood | | | | her body. What does this mean? If their second |
| group. | | | | baby is RhD-positive, he or she will suffer from |
| Antibody - Special protein produced in the blood | | | | Hemolytic disease of the newborn or Rh disease |
| to fight disease, and it antis the antigen with the | | | | for short. This disease, fortunately, can be |
| same name (i.e. A, B.) | | | | prevented, thanks to the modern biotechnology. |
| Transfusion - Process of putting new blood into | | | | So, the number of Rhesus disease incidents are |
| the body of a person or an animal. | | | | related closely to the number of RhD-negative |
| - Blood type A: Antigen A - Antibody B - Can be | | | | individuals in a population. Although most of us are |
| transfused to: A, AB | | | | RhD-positive, there are some that are |
| - Blood type B: Antigen B - Antibody A - Can be | | | | RhD-negative. |
| transfused to: B, AB | | | | ABO and RhD compatible blood transfusion table: |
| - Blood type AB: Antigen A and Antigen B - No | | | | Recipient/Donor |
| Antibody - Can be transfused to: AB | | | | O- O+ A- A+ B- B+ AB- AB+ |
| - Blood type O: No Antigen - Antibody A and | | | | O- ok! |
| Antibody B - Can be transfused to: A, B, AB, O | | | | O+ ok! ok! |
| I assume that you have understood all of the | | | | A- ok! ok! |
| above things, so we can move on right away. It | | | | A+ ok! ok! ok! ok! |
| is still very basic as this is aimed at giving you an | | | | B- ok! ok! |
| idea of how important it is to study your blood. | | | | B+ ok! ok! ok! ok! |
| So, we will now get familiar with a new term | | | | AB- ok! ok! ok! ok! |
| called RhD antigen. | | | | AB+ ok! ok! ok! ok! ok! ok! ok! ok! |
| RhD antigen (Rhesus factor) | | | | (Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_type) |
| RhD antigen, as it name suggests, is another type | | | | According to the above table, people with type O |
| of antigen, and it is also important in determining a | | | | negative blood can give blood to any other blood |
| person's blood type. Your blood type can be | | | | groups and they are known as universal donors, |
| either RhD-positive(D+) or RhD-negative(D-) which | | | | like life saviours you know; whereas people with |
| means you can either have this antigen on the | | | | type AB positive blood are called universal |
| surface of your red blood cell (RBC) or not. This | | | | recipients as they can receive blood from any |
| antigen of course coexists with other antigens. | | | | other blood groups, that is so lucky, don't you |
| So, you can be A+, A-, B+, B-, etc. | | | | think? |
| Now you might guess, do we have some kind of | | | | ABO and RhD is just one of many blood systems |
| Anti-RhD? Like antibody A and antibody B? The | | | | out there, but providing more will just go beyond |
| answer is yes. However, Anti-RhD is not usually a | | | | the scope of simplicity and the knowledge of |
| naturally occuring antibody as anti-A and anti-B | | | | mine. It's time to give you some interesting |
| are. That is, if a RhD-negative person has never | | | | information instead: |
| been exposed to the RhD antigen, they do not | | | | How children inherit blood types from parents: |
| have the RhD antibody. | | | | There are some websites I find useful for this |
| So basically, in the field of blood transfusion, it is | | | | matter: |
| possible to transfuse a RhD-positive blood into | | | | If you want to calculate the possible blood type |
| RhD-negative RBCs of a patient, because he or | | | | of your child, feel free to use this blood type |
| she might not have the RhD antibody as stated | | | | calculator provided at: |
| above. But as per general rule, RhD-negative | | | | This is the end of issue two and I hope that you |
| individuals should not be transfused with | | | | will enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing it. |
| RhD-positive red cells, especially RhD-negative girls | | | | We shall have more and more in-depth articles on |
| and women of childbearing age because this kind | | | | various aspects of our lives while keeping them |
| of transfusion can lead to Hemolytic. | | | | effective and easy ways to study English. |
| Hemolytic disease of the newborn: | | | | |