Check Blood Type, Know the Benefits and Procedures Here

Blood type check is a blood type examination procedure that can be done in various health facilities such as hospitals, clinical laboratories, or even health centers. A person's blood type is determined by the presence or absence of several antigens on a person's red blood cells and blood plasma. In the medical world, the known blood classification system is the ABO system (blood types A, B, AB, and O), and the blood classification system based on Rhesus (Rh positive and Rh negative). Generally, your blood type is also determined by genes that you have inherited from your parents.

Health Benefits of Blood Type Checks

Blood type checks are important for clinical purposes such as the following:

• Blood transfusion

Adjustment of blood groups is an important requirement for donating blood or receiving blood transfusions.

• Prevents transfusion complications

Not all blood types can match each other, so it's important to accept donors or donate blood according to your blood type. Receiving blood that is incompatible with your blood type can lead to blood clots and complications that can be fatal to the body. Symptoms of a blood type mismatch in the blood transfusion process are fever, chills, nausea, yellowish skin and eyes, chest, stomach or back pain, blood in the urine, and shortness of breath. Subsequent stages of complications due to improper transfusion can cause kidney failure, or even death.

• Important for pregnant women

Blood type checks are also important for pregnant women and the fetus they contain. If the mother and fetus have blood groups with different rhesus, it will potentially harm the fetus.

For example, a woman with an Rh negative blood type marries a man who has an Rh positive. Then the fetus that is conceived can be Rh positive blood type. Rh differences between expectant mothers and fetuses can cause an immune reaction from your body. The body of the pregnant mother will regard fetus-different rhesus blood as a foreign body and eventually form antibodies that fight Rh antigens from the fetus. The resulting antibodies can cross the placenta and cause damage to the fetus's red blood cells. This condition can cause babies born with health problems or even death in the womb. Check blood type from the beginning can prevent this condition by giving special drugs. This drug will keep the pregnant woman's body from forming antibodies that can attack the baby's blood cells if their blood is mixed.

Blood Type Check Procedure You Need to Know

In adults, the blood group check process is done by taking a blood sample through a prick in the finger or through a needle inserted into a vein in the arm. Whereas in infants, blood type examination is done by taking blood samples from the baby's feet. To determine your blood type, laboratory technicians will mix your blood sample with antibodies that attack blood types A and B to see the reaction. If your blood cells clot when mixed with antibodies to type A blood, then you have blood type B. Blood samples will then be mixed with anti-Rh serum. If your blood cells clot in reaction to anti-Rh serum, that means you have Rh-positive blood, and vice versa. You can get the results of this examination in just a few minutes. There is no special preparation that you have to do to do a blood type check. Risks of action, such as post-blood hemorrhage, rarely occur unless you have a history of blood clotting disorders.