Association of ABO blood group with bleeding severity in patients with bleeding of unknown cause.

Abstract

Blood group O has been associated with an increased bleeding tendency due to lower von Willebrand factor (VWF) and factor VIII (FVIII) levels. We explored whether blood group O is independently associated with bleeding severity in patients with mild-to-moderate bleeding of unknown cause (BUC) in the Vienna Bleeding Biobank cohort. Bleeding severity was recorded with the Vicenza bleeding score (BS). Blood group O was overrepresented in 422 patients with BUC compared with its presence in 23 145 healthy blood donors (47.2% vs 37.6%; odds ratio, 1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.22-1.79). The BS and the number of bleeding symptoms were significantly higher in patients with blood group O than in patients with non-O after adjustment for VWF and FVIII levels and sex (least-square [LS] means of BSs: 6.2; 95% CI, 5.8-6.6 vs 5.3; 4.9-5.7; and of number of symptoms: LS, 3.5; 95% CI, 3.2-3.7 vs 3.0; 2.8-3.2, respectively). Oral mucosal bleeding was more frequent in those with blood group O than in those with other blood types (group non-O; 26.1% vs 14.3%), independent of sex and VWF and FVIII levels, whereas other bleeding symptoms did not differ. Patients with blood group O had increased clot density in comparison with those with blood group non-O, as determined by rotational thromboelastometry and turbidimetric measurement of plasma clot formation. There were no differences in thrombin generation, clot lysis, or platelet function. Our data indicate that blood group O is a risk factor for increased bleeding and bleeding severity in patients with BUC, independent of VWF and FVIII levels.

• Authors: Dino Mehic, Stefanie Hofer, Christof Jungbauer, Alexandra Kaider, Helmuth Haslacher, Ernst Eigenbauer, Judit Rejtő, Dieter Schwartz, Bernd Jilma, Cihan Ay, Ingrid Pabinger, Johanna Gebhart
• Journal: Blood advances (Blood Adv) Vol. 4 Issue 20 Pg. 5157-5164 (10 27 2020) ISSN: 2473-9537 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 33095871 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: © 2020 by The American Society of Hematology.

Chemical References

• ABO Blood-Group System
• von Willebrand Factor
• Factor VIII

Topics

• ABO Blood-Group System
• Blood Grouping and Crossmatching
• Factor VIII
• Hemorrhage (etiology)
• Humans
• von Willebrand Factor