Introduction:

The ABO, Rh and Kell blood systems are the most relevant from the clinical point of view, due to their immunogenicity and because they are the main causes of hemolytic reactions.

Objective:

To determine the frequencies of ABO and Rh blood groups, and the frequency of the Kell antigen in patients and donors from Costa Rica.

Methods:

During the period from 2009 to 2018, the frequencies of ABO, Rh and Kell blood groups in donor and patient samples were obtained from the blood bank databases of three adult hospitals in Costa Rica. To contrast the frequencies of each blood group, a chi-square test of independence of variables was performed, with 95% confidence interval. The data were analyzed with the statistical package SPSS version 23.

Results:

The frequencies of ABO groups in donor and patient samples showed small but significant differences. The frequency of the negative Rh D phenotype was higher in patients (8.0%) than in donors (6.1%). The frequencies of the antigens C (67.8%), c (80.5%), E (41.4%), e (94.4%), and K (3.1%) were estimated from donor samples.

Conclusions:

Blood donor recruitment strategies increase the frequency of negative Rh phenotype in donors compared to patients. The statistics collected demonstrate an increase in the frequency of the O group compared to recent related studies. Finally, the other antigens did not show as much variation compared to previous studies.

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