Abstract
More than 20 distinct blood group systems have been characterized; but the ABO and Rh blood groups remain the most important. The frequencies exhibit considerable variation in different geographic locations, reflecting the underlying genetic and ethnic diversity of the human population. The primary objective to carry out this study was to explore the frequency of ABO and Rh blood groups among the donors in the region of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. This cross-sectional study was carried out in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad including data from 6th April 2019 to 15th September 2019. Data were collected retrospectively from the records of donors of all the registered blood banks in the mentioned localities during the last 5 years. Informed consent was gained and a total of 46363 participants were included with 25030 males and 21333 females. All participants were selected without any bias via the online patient record of the blood banks. All blood groups were identified using the slide agglutination method with commercially prepared anti-sera. The frequency of each blood group in order of its prevalence was found to be: B +ive (31.8%) > O +ive (28.5%) > A +ive (22.1%) > AB +ive (9%) > B -ive (3%) > O -ive (2.5%) > A -ive (2.1%) > AB -ive (0.9%). Overall blood group B +ive was the most common blood group, and Rh +ive groups were generally more common than Rh -ive blood groups. The results of our study provide useful data regarding frequencies of ABO and Rhesus blood groups among blood donors of the twin cities. It will in the future help create an inventory of blood banks, study disease patterns, and heredity in this region.