Selection of Donors for Frozen Blood Based on Specific Blood Group Combinations

The basic ABO blood group system discovered by Landsteiner in 1900 is still the most important blood group system in transfusion therapy. The presence of anti-A and anti-B isoagglutinins in blood which does not contain the corresponding antigen in the red cells represents one of the major hazards in blood transfusion therapy. While the majority of the so-called irregular blood group antibodies usually are not present in blood unless a stimulation has taken place either by pregnancy or transfusion, the anti-A and anti-B antibodies are present without this stimulation and will always remain a latent danger in blood transfusion therapy. For this reason the use of group O blood as so-called universal donor blood has always intrigued workers in the field of blood transfusion. When Witebsky and co-workers in 1941 published their paper on the "Preparation and Transfusion of Safe Universal Blood" it was hoped that the solution to the