EMM Negative Rare blood group found in Rajkot man 11th such case worldwide

Well, as shocking as you can get, a 65-year-old man from Rajkot was surprised that he was unable to locate blood to match his blood type. The blood type AB-positive is known as the universal acceptor, but to his surprise, there is no match to his blood. It is the first instance of this rare condition in India. EMM negative rare blood group found in Rajkot man 11th such case worldwide.

It is an instance of an EMM-negative blood case that is known for a few years. Ripal Shah, Snehal Senjaliya and Sanmukh Joshi, among others, published the article “Anti-EMM, a rare high-incidence EMM antigen specificity in an Indian patient defined the new EMM blood group system (ISBT042)” in the Asian Journal of Transfusion Science.

Dr. Ripal Shah, director of Prathama blood bank in Ahmedabad speaks about the patient. The patient was searching for blood in Rajkot and he was unable to find it. However, the patient comes to Ahmedabad in search of the blood. “He needed it for coronary artery bypass graft surgery. An antibody in his blood reacted in the saline and antiglobulin phases.” However, even his own children’s blood did not match his blood group.

EMM Negative Rare Blood Group found in Rajkot man

These cases are quite different from the general cases where a similar blood group doesn’t match the blood type. EMM antigens are antibodies that develop naturally in the human body. There are ten such globally registered persons in the entire world with the EMM-negative blood type. EMM negative rare blood group found in Rajkot man 11th such case worldwide was looking for blood for his cardiac surgery. However, to his surprise, the EMM condition prevented him from getting the surgry done. The patient died after some months because of the high level of  haemoglobin.

Ripal Shah, the chief medical director at Prathama Laboratory spoke out that there are 40 samples present in the laboratory. However, none of the blood groups matched with the person’s blood. The team conducted all the methods to match the blood group but none of the samples matched the blood group.

As Ripal Shah, says I realized there is something strange in his blood. However, the teams will also match the blood with samples of the patients son and daughter. But that did not work either. So, we sent the sample to New York.

“It took the team more than a year to conclude. The delay in the process is also due to the Covid pandemic. In between, the doctors gave him medication to increase his hemoglobin levels. As the haemoglobin levels began to rise the patient was not in a state to undergo surgery. It made the doctors postpone the surgery. However, the person was also infected with Covid and died a few times back in the month of June 2022.

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What is EMM negative?

EMM is an erythrocyte antigen with high incidence in eight previously reported EMM subjects. Anti-EMM appears natural but is responsible for a clinically significant acute hemolytic transfusion reaction. If the EMM level is low in blood then the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) named it EMM negative.

The interesting fact about people with EMM-negative blood is that these people cannot donate or accept blood from anyone. It is also considered to be among the rarest conditions in the world that these people cannot get help in times of need. The blood group has been given the symbol ISBTO42.

A recent discussion on the EMM-negative Blood Group

The rarity of the EMM-negative blood group poses challenges for transfusion medicine. Patients with this blood type can develop anti-EMM antibodies that can cause hemolytic transfusion reactions (HTRs) when given EMM-negative blood. Therefore, it is crucial to detect the presence of anti-EMM antibodies and to identify EMM-negative blood donors for these patients.

The identification of the eleventh case of the EMM-negative blood group contributes to our understanding of this rare blood group and its clinical implications. Additional research and collaboration between blood banks and healthcare facilities are essential to ensure the appropriate treatment of these patients, including the identification of EMM-negative blood donors and the development of transfusion therapy guidelines.

EMM negative rare blood group in Ahmedabad

The patient, who was being treated after suffering a heart attack in Ahmedabad, needed blood for heart surgery, according to Sanmukh Joshi, a doctor at Samarpan Blood Donation Center in Surat. However, the samples were only delivered to Surat’s blood transfusion center when his blood type could not be identified at the Prathama laboratory in Ahmedabad.

The old man’s blood group was later found to be the first occurrence of the rarest blood group in India and the tenth in the world. The International Society for Blood Transfusion (ISBT) has labeled it EMM negative because there is no EMM in the blood.

The one-of-a-kind this blood is very rare in the entire world. However, many people around the world are new to this type of information. The blood transfusion is only applicable if the blood of the donor matches with the patient. If the blood doesn’t match with the donor then the blood transfusion process is dreadful. In addition, scientists in the United States and major parts of the world are studying the EMM-negative rare blood group.

Conclusion

The rare blood type EMM-negative brings a lot of challenges in transfusion medicine. However, the patient suffering from this type develops anti-EMM bodies which lead to multiple errors in the human body. Scientists and doctors all over the globe are conducting experiments in finding a solution to the issue. In addition, this case is only the 11th case worldwide and the first case in India.

The main issue of the blood group is the patient body cannot accept the blood from others. It is necessary for people to have regular updates on their health. The healthy the people the similar way they will be away from any surgeries.