Adverse Effects of Blood Transfusion Practice Test

In a transfusion reaction workup, you need to determine if the reaction was due to incompatibility or an antibody–antigen interaction, which requires comparing both sides. Samples are collected from the patient and from the implicated donor unit for ABO/Rh typing and antibody testing. The patient’s sample reveals their true blood group and any alloantibodies present in their plasma that could react with donor RBCs. The donor unit’s sample confirms its ABO/Rh type and helps identify whether the donor’s RBC antigens or any donor-derived antibodies could have caused the reaction. This dual sampling rules in or out ABO incompatibility and detects antibodies that could be responsible, guiding appropriate management. If only patient samples were collected, you wouldn’t be able to assess the donor unit’s compatibility, and if only donor samples were collected, you couldn’t determine the recipient’s antibodies or the actual mismatch.