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Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is an integral component of supportive therapy for patients with sickle cell disease (SCD), but its usefulness is often limited by RBC antibody formation and delayed hemolytic transfusion reactions (DHTRs). These effects are thought to be caused by a mismatch between predominantly white RBC donors and black SCD recipients, given the differences in RBC antigen frequency between the two ethnic groups. Might alloimmunization be prevented if black patients received RBCs from antigen-matched black donors?
To find out, investigators conducted a 15-year, retrospective study involving 182 black patients with SCD (median age, 15.7 years; range, 0.5–41), of whom 59 received episodic RBC transfusions and 123 received ch…