Genetic blood typing by high throughput sequencing

Accurate blood typing is an essential step to minimize alloimmunization caused by blood transfusion. For patients with chronic anemia, such as sickle cell disease and thalassemia, multiple transfusions are indispensable in the long run. However, the management of transfusion remains challenging in clinical practice (1). Limited accuracy of serological tests can cause mismatches and the resulting alloimmunization can be life-threatening (2). Weak or partial expression of antigen might also confuse the blood typing (3). Therefore, conventional blood typing using serology may not best suit the clinical demands on the rise and genetic blood group testing would be a better alternative to complement the current serological methods.