Prevention of alloimmunization in patients with sickle cell disease in Chad

The objective of this study was to contribute to the prevention of anti-erythrocyte alloimmunization in patients with sickle cell disease (DS) in Chad. This was a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study from December 2021 to June 2022 in sickle cell patients regularly followed in two University Hospital Centers (CHU) in N'Djamena. The search for irregular antibodies was carried out by a combination of three techniques: indirect anti-globulin test (Coombs), enzymatic test (Papain) and the test in a low ionic strength medium, in a partner laboratory of the National Blood Transfusion Center in France. The study included 57 sickle cell patients, 45 of whom (78.9%) were actually transfused. Sickle cell patients accounted for 84.2% of cases. The sex ratio Male/Female (M/F) was 1.03. The average age of the transfused was 9.3 ± 5.4 years. Four of the transfused patients (8.8%) had produced 7 antibodies including 85.7% anti-rhesus and 14.3% anti-Kell. Age, sex and number of blood units were associated with antibody production with probabilities of 0.046, 0.041 and 0.035, respectively. In view of the results obtained from this study, we recommend the application of the blood transfusion rules and procedures in force in Chad.