Frequency of A2 Blood Group among A Blood Group

Background: Transfusion medicine is an important branch in the field of medicine and patient care. Prior knowledge and identification of subgroups of ABO blood group system is important in blood transfusion, inheritance pattern, genetics and disease susceptibility. Getting right donor in right time in right place is sometime a challenge in patient care. So proper blood typing is mandatory. Still now there is no data on frequency of rare A2 blood group in Bangladesh Armed Forces as well as in Bangladesh. Aim: To see the frequency of A2 blood group among ABO blood groups in Bangladesh Armed forces and Bangladesh. Materials and Methods: A total of 200 patients with blood group A irrespective of age and sex were included in this retrospective study and the study was carried out in the Department of Transfusion Medicine Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Dhaka Cantonment, Dhaka, Bangladesh from 01 June 2021 to 30 June 2021. Blood grouping was performed by slide method and Anti-A1 reagent is used to differentiate blood group A1  from blood group A2. Results: Among 200 A blood group individual 198 were typed as A1 (99%) and 02 were typed as A2 (01%). Among those two one had anti A1 antibody while other didn’t have. Conclusion: A2 is a rare subtype of A blood group.  Care should be taken during routine ABO grouping especially in cases of discrepancies or mix-field or weak positive reactions in A blood group.