Transfusion problems of allogenic bone marrow transplantation (BMT)

It is well known that BMT is associated with certain immunohematological and transfusion problems. Such problems are related to the fact that inheritance of blood group antigens is independent of the HLA gene complex so that even if the donor and the recipient are HLAmatched, their red blood cells (RBC) may be of different genotypes. There may be a minor or a major incompatibility, which is important for the ABO, Rh, and Kell antigens systems. In our BMT Center 35 allogeneic bone marrow transplantations (allo-BMT) have been performed in patients with hematological diseases from HLA-identical siblings (16 were RBCmatched and 19-mismatched: 11 major, 6 minor, 2 major minor). This number of cases of RBC-mismatched BMT is rather high when compared to the literature (Petz L.D. 1987), but might be explained by ethnic and geographical peculiarities of our country.