Noreena Aslam
Obesity, Diabetes & Endocrinology
Title: Inherit “B†Blood group and get Diabetes for free!
Biography
Biography: Noreena Aslam
Abstract
Background: There are differences in the distribution of ABO and Rh(D) blood groups in different populations of the world. There is paucity of information about blood group distribution in Pakistanis and association of familial diseases in healthy population.
Aims & objectives: To measure the frequency of ABO and Rh(D) blood groups in major local ethnic groups (Arains, Jutts, Maliks, Rajpoots etc) along with frequency of familial diabetes in healthy subjects.
Subjects and methods: Blood testing for ABO and Rh (D) typing was done among 1000 unrelated students from both genders in University College of Medicine and Dentistry students of University of Lahore in association with their blood donor’s society over few months using finger prick method followed by routine slide method. Information about sub-ethnicity of subjects and presence of diabetes in the family was inquired.
Results: Blood group "B" was the most predominant (n=374; 37.4%) in both Rh positive and negative subjects, followed by blood group “O” (n=295; 29.5%), “A” (n=248; 24.8%) and
“AB” (n=83; 8.3%). Majority (n=882; 88.2%) of the subjects were Rh (D) positive and only 11.8% (n=118) were Rh negative. Subjects with blood group “A” and “AB” had maximum frequency of Rh positivity (n=226; 91.1%) and negativity (n=15; 18.1%) respectively. Most common sub-ethnicities were “Araeens” with predominance of blood group “B” (41.3%) followed by “Jutts” with blood group “B” (33.3%), “Maliks” with blood group “A” (30.6%) and “Rajputs” with blood group “B” (43.2%). Blood group “A” was most concentrated in “Butts” (36.8%) and blood group “B” in Khokhars (72.7%). Blood groups “AB” as well as “O” were most common in “Cheemas” with percentages of 25% and 37.5% respectively. A total of 54% (46 out of 118) cases of paternal Diabetes and 52% (45 out of 116) cases of maternal Diabetes were concentrated in blood group “B”.
Conclusions: The ethnic distribution of blood groups is important in predicting familial diseases like diabetes possibly due to marriages within same ethnicity in our population.