External quality assurance

15.5: External quality assurance

It is important that any laboratory performing this testing for clinical purposes participates in some sort of external quality assurance scheme. There is a National External Quality Assurance Scheme (NEQAS) available for molecular blood grouping. The International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) organises workshops every 2 years in which DNA samples from ‘patients’ and plasma from D negative pregnant women are distributed. In addition, it may be possible to set up sample‑exchange schemes with other laboratories carrying out similar work.

Table 15.1 Some blood group polymorphisms and associated gene sequence changes

System	Gene	Antigens	Molecular test
MNS	GYPA	M/N	59 C/T, 71 G/A
Rh	RHD	D	Presence/absence
	RHCE	C	Intron 2 insertion
		c	307 C
		E/e	676 G/C
Lutheran	LU or BCAM	Lu^a/Lu^b	230 A/G
Kell	KEL	K/k	578 T/C
		Kp^a/Kp^b	841 T/C
		Js^a/Js^b	1790 C/T
Duffy	FY or ACKR1	Fy^a/Fy^b	125 G/A
Duffy	FY or ACKR1	Fy-null	−67t>c
Kidd	JK or SLC14A1	Jk^a/Jk^b	838 G/A
Diego	DI or SLC4A1	Di^a/Di^b	2561 T/C
Yt	YT or ACHE	Yt^a/Yt^b	1057 C/A
Dombrock	DO or ART4	Do^a/Do^b	793 A/G
Colton	CO or AQP1	Co^a/Co^b	134 C/T

Last updated 04/09/2023