Can a person with blood type o successfully donate blood to a person who has type ab?

What is an ABO incompatibility reaction?

An ABO incompatibility reaction can occur if you receive the wrong type of blood during a blood transfusion. It’s a rare but serious and potentially fatal response to incompatible blood by your immune system.

These reactions are extremely rare, because doctors are aware of the danger of using the wrong blood during a transfusion. There are many precautions in place to reduce the chances of a mistake. Your doctor and nurse know to look for certain symptoms during and after your transfusion that might mean you’re having a reaction. This allows them to provide you with treatment as quickly as possible.

Learn more: Transfusion therapy »

The four main blood types are A, B, AB, and O. If you’re type A, your red blood cells have proteins attached to them known as A antigens. Type B blood cells carry B antigens. Type AB blood has both A and B antigens, and type O blood has neither A nor B antigens.

Your immune system will produce antibodies against any blood antigens you don’t have in your own blood. That means people with type A blood create antibodies against B antigens. A person with type A blood receiving a transfusion of type B or AB blood would have an ABO incompatibility reaction. In an ABO incompatibility reaction, your immune system attacks the new blood cells and destroys them.

If you have type AB blood, you have both A and B antigens. This means you’re a universal recipient and you can receive any type of blood. However, you can only donate blood to other people who have type AB blood.

If you have type O blood, which has no antigens, you’re a universal donor. You can give your blood to anyone without triggering their immune system, but you can only receive type O blood.

Before a blood transfusion, your doctor will test your blood to determine your blood type. A small sample will be crossmatched with some of your donated blood. The two samples of blood are then mixed and watched for a reaction. This allows your doctor to be certain an incompatibility reaction won’t take place.

Human error is the most likely cause of an ABO incompatibility reaction. If your transfusion uses the wrong blood type, it could be the result of mislabeled blood, incorrectly completed forms, or a failure to check donated blood before the transfusion.

Medical staff will stop the blood transfusion if they suspect you might be having an incompatibility reaction. They’ll tell the blood bank about it, because there’s a risk that the wrong blood could also have been given to other patients.

Learn more: Transfusion reactions »

Your doctor will test samples of your blood for evidence of destruction of your red blood cells. They’ll also test your urine to see if it contains hemoglobin, a component released from broken-down blood cells. They’ll double-check your blood type and carry out the crossmatch procedure again.

While these procedures are performed, your doctor or nurse will monitor your vital signs, including your:

  • blood pressure
  • heart rate
  • breathing
  • temperature

You may need to enter the intensive care unit. After stopping your blood transfusion, the medical staff will attach a saline drip to the line to keep it open.

The goal of treatment is to prevent you from having kidney failure, extensive blood clotting, and blood pressure that’s abnormally low. You may receive oxygen and intravenous fluids. You may also receive a drug to increase your urine output. If you’re at risk of having widespread clotting, you may receive a transfusion of plasma or platelets.

There isn’t much that patients can do to prevent ABO incompatibility reactions. However, most hospitals and blood banks have systems in place to reduce the chance that such a reaction will occur. These include:

  • checking the identities of donors to ensure that their details match the information on their blood samples
  • correctly labeling stored samples
  • double-checking the blood type of both patients and blood packs before each transfusion

During an ABO incompatibility reaction, the red blood cells inside your circulatory system break down. Blood clotting may occur throughout your body, shutting off the blood supply to vital organs or causing a stroke. Too much blood clotting can use up clotting factors and leave you at risk of excessive bleeding.

Some of the products released from broken-down blood cells can cause kidney damage and possibly kidney failure. An ABO incompatibility reaction can be life-threatening unless your doctor successfully treats it right away. However, if you have a reaction and receive the correct treatment without delay, you should recover completely.

You may have heard discussions about “matching” and kidney transplantation. There are actually three tests that are done to evaluate donors. They are blood type, crossmatch, and HLA testing. This blood test is the first step in the process of living donation and determines if you are compatible or a “match” to your recipient.

Blood Typing
There are 4 different blood types. The most common blood type in the population is type O. The next most common is blood type A, then B, and the rarest is blood type AB. The blood type of the donor must be compatible with the recipient. The rules for blood type in transplantation are the same as they are for blood transfusion. Some blood types can give to others and some may not. Blood type O is considered the universal donor. People with blood type O can give to any other blood type. Blood type AB is called the universal recipient because they can receive an organ or blood from people with any blood type. The chart below shows which blood type can donate to which.

If your blood type is:  You can donate to these blood types:
TYPE O TYPE O, A, B, AB
TYPE A TYPE A, AB
TYPE B TYPE B, AB
TYPE AB TYPE AB

HLA Typing
HLA typing is also called “tissue typing”. HLA stands for human leukocyte antigen. Antigens are proteins on the cells in the body. Out of over 100 different antigens that have been identified, there are six that have been shown to be the most important in organ transplantation. Of these six antigens, we inherit three from each parent.

Except in cases of identical twins and some siblings, it is rare to get a six-antigen match between two people, especially if they are unrelated. Kidneys are very successfully transplanted between two people with no matching antigens.

A person can make antibodies against another person’s HLA antigens. Antibodies can result from blood transfusions, pregnancy, infections or even a viral illness. Having one of these events does not mean a person will make antibodies but they could. If a recipient has strong antibodies against a donor’s HLA, the risk of rejection is high and a donor would be declined for that recipient.

Can Type O blood donate to type B+?

B positive patients can receive blood from B positive, B negative, O positive and O negative donors.

Can a person with type AB blood successfully donate blood to a person who has type A?

Donors with blood type AB... can donate to recipients with blood type AB only. Donors with blood type O... can donate to recipients with blood types A, B, AB and O (O is the universal donor: donors with O blood are compatible with any other blood type)

What blood type can O not donate to?

Those with O positive blood can only receive transfusions from O positive or O negative blood types.

What blood type is compatible with AB+?

AB positive blood type is known as the “universal recipient” because AB positive patients can receive red blood cells from all blood types.