Abstract: Haemolysin is a type of antibody that has the ability of combining with its specific antigen on the red blood cells and together with complement cause destruction of the cells. This study was carried out to know the incidence of alpha and beta haemolysins among pregnant women in Ado-Ekiti. Three Hundred and Sixty subjects were recruited for this study, out of which Seventy-Nine were Blood Group A, Seventy-Four were Blood Group B and Two Hundred and Seven were Blood Group O.4ml of blood was collected into plain bottles from eachSubject. Cell grouping (tube method) and haemolysin screening test were carried out after clot retraction. Blood group O has the highest percentage incidence of beta (β) haemolysin (14.5%) followed by Blood group A (13.9%) while blood group B has higher percentage incidence of alpha haemolysin (10.8%) than Group O (8.2%), and Group O has 2.4% αβ haemolysin and all their titres were less than or equal to 16. This shows that despite the averagely high incidence of alpha and beta haemolysins among the pregnant women in this part of the country, there has been no report of Heamolytic Disease of New-born (HDN) and/or still birth due to ABO incompatibility between mother and fetus, which could be as a result of low titre of these haemolysins and a suggestion that most of the haemolysins are of IgM type. This study also suggests that pregnancy enhances the production of beta haemolysin than that of alpha haemolysin.
Keywords: incidence, alpha and beta haemolysins, pregnant women, Ado-Ekiti.
Title: Incidence of Alpha (α) And Beta (β) Haemolysins and Their Titres among Pregnant Women in Ado-Ekiti, South-West, Nigeria
Author: Thompson Joseph Akinbolaji
International Journal of Healthcare Sciences
ISSN 2348-5728 (Online)
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