Low prevalence of IgA deficiency in north Indian population.
OBJECTIVE
IgA deficient patients are at risk of severe anaphylactic reaction on being transfused blood and blood products, and its prevalence varies in different parts of the world. No data are available from India. We did a blood donor survey to look for prevalence of IgA deficiency in north India.


METHODS
A sensitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay developed in-house was used to detect IgA deficiency in a total of 3818 blood donors. Complete IgA deficiency was defined as value less than 5 mg/dl whereas partial IgA deficiency was defined as value between 5-30 mg/dl.


RESULTS
Of the 3818 blood donors screened, 3640 (95.3%) were males with a mean age of 31.2 yr. No donor was found to have complete IgA deficiency; however, 257 (6.7%) had partial IgA deficiency.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study shows that IgA deficiency is rare in north India.
Chandran
Shelly
S
Department of Immunology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India.
Khetan
Dheeraj
D
Chaudhary
Rajendra
R
Misra
Ramnath
R
Aggarwal
Amita
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000707:Anaphylaxis / Q000209:etiology; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood; D001782:Blood Donors; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017098:IgA Deficiency / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D065227:Transfusion Reaction
D001323:Autoantibodies; D007070:Immunoglobulin A