Scientific Journal of

  Abstract

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 Background and Objectives

 The distribution of main blood groups vary according to racial, ethnic and geographical differences. Due to their importance in qualitative and quantitative management of safe blood supplies in different geographical regions, due to the relation between a specific blood group with the prevalence of a typical disease, and further due to their significance in kidney transplantation procedure, we decided to analyze the frequency of ABO and Rh(D) blood types among 1,300,000 Iranian blood donors in different provinces of Iran in the year 2001 and compared the results with a similar study that was conducted in 1982.

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 Materials and Methods

 Clotted blood samples were obtained from donors. Then, the samples were tested for A, B, O and Rh (D) blood groups using anti-A, anti-B and anti-D reagents. The ABO blood group was determined by comparing the results of forward typing with that of reverse typing. The final results were collected from 28 different provinces throughout Iran and were then analyzed by Excel program.

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 Results

 Our findings are shown in a discending order of frequency: O blood group was detected in 37.62% of population A blood group in 30.25% B blood group in 24.36% and AB blood group in 7.77%. The frequency of O and B blood groups has increased 1.3% in comparison to the results obtained in 1982 whereas the frequency of A blood group has decreased by 2%. In some provinces such as Azarbayejan-Gharby, Isfahan, Ilam, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiyary, Khuzistan, Fars, Kordestan, Kohkiloyeh-BoyerAhmad, Mazandaran, Hormozgan and Yazd, the blood group frequencies have shown more alteration.

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 Conclusions

 This change in frequency is due to several factors including the modification of provincial borders, migration to other cities during the Iran-Iraq war, as well as the tendency to move to larger, industrialized cities.

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 Key words: RBC blood group, ABO system, Rh system, Frequency, Iran