Pattern of ABO and Rh blood groups in Multan region

The discovery of various blood group systems has an immense importance in transfusion medicine and medico legal field. The association of certain blood groups with various diseases like peptic ulcer is well established. ABO and Rh blood groups are the main systems to cause blood transfusion reactions. An individual blood group today, is as important as national identity card. In cases of emergency blood transfusion, the blood group data of a population is very much important. The frequency of ABO and Rh blood groups vary throughout the world. It has been observed that group B diminishes in frequency from East to West. ABO and Rh blood group data is well established in Karachi and Lahore areas, but the data is not available from Multan region. In this study six thousands young healthy voluntary blood donors of either sex belonging to Multan region comprising of 5476 males and 524 females were included from "Blood Transfusion Center Nishtar Hospital Multan" and "Fatmid Blood Transfusion Center Multan". The commonest blood group observed in this study was "B" with frequency of 36.95%. The next common was group "0" with frequency of 33.8% followed by group "A" with frequency of 21.92% and group "AB" 7.33%. The frequency distribution of Rh blood group shows that 92.17% of the subjects are Rh-+ve and 7.83% are Rh--ve

Assessment of severity of cirrhosis in hospitalized patients

Background: To assess the severity of cirrhosis at the time of presentation to hospital and to seek association between sociocultural, demographic and geographic variables and severity of chronic liver disease

Materials and Methods: One hundred consecutive cases of cirrhosis of liver admitted in Nishtar Hospital, Multan were included in this study. After history, physical examination and relevant investigations, patients were segregated into Child grade A, B and C depending upon the severity of liver disease

Results: Among 100 cases studied, 48 were male and 52 female; the mean age was 47 years [range 20 to 80 years]. Majority of the patients were from low socio economic group. Out of 100 cases 72% were from rural areas and 28% were from urban areas. It was found that most of the patients [92%] presented to hospital when their liver disease was advanced [46 patients of Child grade B and 46 patients of Child grade C] while only 8 patients had mild liver disease [Child Grade A]. Rural population had more severe disease at the time of presentation as compared to urban population. Poor and middle socioeconomic group had more severe and advanced chronic liver disease as compared to rich class [p=0.0306]. It was found that female had more severe disease at the time of presentation [P=0.0346]. Frequency of cirrhosis was found to be more above 40 years of age

Conclusion: Results of this study indicated that cases of cirrhosis of liver are referred to tertiary care units when their disease is advanced with serious complications. Moreover there is a significant association between geographic and socioeconomic status of the patients and severity of cirrhosis. It is recommended that health care personnel should be properly trained for health education and early recognition and referral of the patients of chronic liver disease to tertiary care units. This will prevent complications and with help to decrease the morbidity and mortality