Selective deficiency of
immunoglobulin A (
IgA) is the most frequent primary
hypogammaglobulinemia. As some
IgA-deficient patients have
IgA antibodies in their plasma which may cause
anaphylactic reactions, blood centers usually maintain a list of
IgA-deficient blood donors to prepare compatible blood components. In this study we determined the incidence of selective
IgA deficiency (SIgAD) in normal adult Iranian population. 13022 normal Iranian blood donors were included in this study. The assay which we used was adapted to the manual pipetting system and ELISA reader was used for screening. Other classes of
immunoglobulins (G, M), as well as
secretory IgA and
IgG subclasses were tested in
IgA deficient cases by ELISA. SPSS was used for statistical analysis.Among 13022 studied cases, 11608 blood donors were males (89.14%) and 1414 were females (10.86%). Their mean (+/-SD) age and weight were 38.5+/-11 years and 82+/-12 Kg respectively. Twenty of the screened samples were found by means of ELISA to be
IgA-deficient (less than 5mg/dl), (frequency; 1:651). The data could indicate a compensation for
IgA deficiency by serum
IgM in one of our
IgA deficient cases (Patient 5). We observed a correlation between
IgG3 and serum
IgA in deficient cases (r=0.498, P=0.025). Our results indicate that in present study the prevalence of S
IgA D is in agreement with data from other Caucasians populations (from 1:300 to 1:700). In conclusion, Selective
IgA Deficiency could be almost asymptomatic in most cases in general population. Our study suggests that; due to high frequency of
IgA deficiency in Iran, it seems necessary to measure
IgA levels for every blood donor and blood recipient to find
IgA deficient cases.