what is the role of blood types in transfusions ?

Question

anonymous · Answer

Mixing blood from two individuals can lead to blood clumping or agglutination. The clumped red cells can crack and cause toxic reactions. This can have fatal consequences. Karl Landsteiner discovered that blood clumping was an immunological reaction which occurs when the receiver of a blood transfusion has antibodies against the donor blood cells.

dean.shyy · Answer

The role of blood types in transfusions is very important because they help distinguish which blood type would be compatible with other blood types a person may have. This is very important because a body rejects blood that it is not compatible with. This could result in very serious complications, whereby the body might go overdrive with the body's innate defense system. Sometimes a person may die due to complete rejection.

bostonblue · Answer

for some more info, if you are studying blood types: there are 4 blood types: A,B, AB, and O. O is known as the universal donor and AB is known as the universal recipient. (A and B can only give to each to their own type and to AB - because AB can receive from all the types.) However, each blood types either has an RH antigen on the cell surface or not - - so each blood type is either RH+ (positive) or RH- (negative). RH+ blood can not donate to RH negative blood at all. (even if it's O, the universal donor.) if the blood is O+ it can't donate to AB- (even though AB is thought of as the universal recipient). however, RH- blood CAN donate to RH+ blood (so O- can donate to AB+ . . . in fact O- blood can donate to any other type.) http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/landsteiner/readmore.html this is a link to a great site that explains it all in a very easy to understand way. (including the dangers of transfusing the wrong blood types) . . . at the bottom of the page is a very good chart that shows which types of blood can donate to which other types. (they even have a game, so if you're going to have a test on which types can donate to which, the game can help you study in a fun way.)