HLA frequencies and relationship with red cell antibodies.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An investigation into the putative relationship between human leucocyte antigen (HLA) Class II type and the response to incompatible blood transfusions.
IRAS ID
215966
Contact name
David Turner
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
SNBTS
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 29 days
Research summary
Service Improvement.
Blood for transfusion cannot currently be exactly matched to the patient, so there is always a risk of minor incompatibility. Some people respond to this by developing blood group specific antibodies (responders), making future transfusion more complicated, while others do not (non responders). This study aims to determine whether there is a difference in HLA types between responders and the normal, local population. If there is found to be a significant difference in HLA type between the groups, the study will aim to determine whether HLA typing before blood transfusion can predict those patients who require more extensively matched transfusions and those who can accept minor incompability. This would allow transfusion services to divert efforts to these patients who need to me more intensively screened and cross-matched.
The study will use residual samples from patients who have been crossmatched for transfusion in the Clinical Laboratory in the Regional Transfusion Centre. HLA typing will be performed by genetic testing. No further samples will be requested from patients and their treatment will not be affected by the study. Clinical Laboratory staff will anonymise the samples before passing on to student for testing. The only identifier used will be the specificity of the antibody in the sample.
The duration of the study will be determined by the number of patient samples available. Approxiamately 50 samples would be required for each antibody specificity tested., therefore the timescale would depend on the number of suitable samples available. In addition, 200 normal samples from the local population would be required to provide a reference range for the incidence of HLA types. These samples will be requested from Donor Testing Laboratory of the Regional Transfusion Centre and could be supplied in 1 day, after all routing testing is completed and the samples are ready for discard.
REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SW/0320
Date of REC Opinion
30 Nov 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion