A case report on para-Bombay blood group

Rare blood group detection is important as the incidence of these blood groups is very low. These rare blood groups need a transfusion of blood from the same group of people; sometimes, it is not available in blood banks. It is important to detect them in the field of transfusion medicine so that the right transfusion at the right time and for the right patient is ensured. We had one patient who was identified as blood group O in a private laboratory and the patient came to our hospital for anemia during the second trimester of pregnancy whose forward grouping showed no agglutination in the anti-a and anti-b and also no agglutination in the anti-H so we thought it to be Bombay blood group. We performed the reverse grouping and we found agglutination with pooled A cells and pooled B cells but no agglutination in the pooled O cells. We found forward and reverse grouping were discordant so we concluded that the patient had Bombay variant blood group, the secretor status of the patient was done in saliva using hemagglutination inhibition test and we found that the patient had secretion of H substance in the saliva. Rh typing: it was found that the patient had positive in Rh typing. Family members were screened and they all were O positive. Forward and reverse grouping along with the secretor status detection helped to detect the case. This case report highlights the importance of blood grouping forward and reverse and also using Anti-H reagent for blood grouping and also the use of secretor status in the detection of proper blood grouping of the patient.