Patients with type O blood who carry alpha-gal antibodies from tick bites appear more likely to have severe allergic reactions when given plasma or platelets from type B or AB donors, according to a study of more than 550,000 transfusions published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The research was led by pathologists at Dartmouth Health and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, in collaboration with an international team, and was published in JAMA Internal Medicine on August 24; the institution described the finding as likely to change practice. Researchers propose the term transfusion-related alpha-gal syndrome (TRAGS). At the nine U.S. study sites in areas with high concentrations of alpha-gal syndrome, significantly more allergic transfusion reactions were reported among type O patients who received B or AB units than among those who received O units.
