▲ | kimos a day ago | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
My clearly incorrect understanding was that there are ~8 blood types. So reading that there are 48 is shocking. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
▲ | nick238 a day ago | parent | next [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There are 48 blood type systems, of which ABO (giving A, B, AB, and O) and Rh (+/-) can be combined to form the 8 common types. There are effectively millions of types because all the systems combined combinatorially, but most antigens beyond ABO and Rh don't cause that much of an issue, so in emergency cases, they just go with them. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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▲ | AnotherGoodName a day ago | parent | prev [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The other thing people should have more awareness of is that plasma and blood have opposite compatibilities; a universal plasma donor will have blood only compatible to their blood type and vice versa. Which makes the hollywood trope of ‘i’m a universal donor’ really silly. Universal donor of what? And then they pump the blood and plasma straight into the other person pretty much guaranteeing problems since either the blood or plasma will be incompatible. The only reason blood donation works is due to machines that separate the blood and plasma. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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