Christophe Marquette and his colleagues reported in the ACS’ Analytical Chemistry journal that advances are being made to have more blood banks use “extended blood group typing.” The study evaluates a more current, affordable method called the HiFi Blood 96, with DNA testing in an automated procedure. 293 tests were performed to demonstrate reliability and performance.

Most blood banks today still use methods that are nearly a century old and identify proteins that must match both the donor and the recipient. Most blood typing only tests for a few of the 29 known human blood groups.

Until now, commercial typing has been available using DNA tests but it has been expensive and not well-suited for high volume blood centers. For more information, please visit http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/194823.php.