People with type O blood may have the lowest risk of...

As the pandemic continues, the global biomedical research community is working urgently to identify coronavirus risk factors and potential therapeutic targets. The possible role of blood type in predicting the risk and complications of COVID-19 infection has emerged as an important scientific question. These new studies suggest that blood type may be linked to susceptibility to COVID-19. However, additional research is needed to better understand why and what this means for patients.

People with blood type O may be less prone to COVID-19 infections

According to a retrospective study, blood type O can offer some protection against COVID-19 infection. The researchers compared Danish health registry data from more than 473,000 people tested for COVID-19 with data from a control group of more than 2.2 million people from the general population. Among the COVID-19 positives, they found fewer people with blood type O and more people with A, B and AB types.

The study results suggest that people with blood types A, B, or AB may be more likely to be infected with COVID-19 than people with type O. The researchers found no significant difference in infection rates between A, B, and AB types. Because blood type distributions vary between ethnic subgroups, the researchers also checked ethnicity, claiming that fewer people with blood type O tested positive for the virus.

“It is very important to consider the right control group as the prevalence of the blood type can vary significantly across races and countries,” said study author Torben Barington, MD, of Odense University Hospital and the University of Southern Denmark. “We have the advantage of a strong control group – Denmark is a small, ethnically homogeneous country with a public health system and a central registry for laboratory data. Our control is based on the population and gives our results a solid foundation. ”

Blood groups A and AB, which are associated with an increased risk of serious clinical outcomes of COVID-19 infection According to a separate retrospective study, people with blood groups A or AB appear to have a higher severity of COVID-19 disease than people with blood groups O or B. The researchers examined data from 95 critically ill COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized in Vancouver, Canada. They found that patients with blood types A or AB were more likely to need mechanical ventilation, suggesting that they are more likely to have lung injuries due to COVID-19. They also found that more patients with blood types A and AB needed dialysis for kidney failure.

Taken together, these results suggest that patients in these two blood groups may have an increased risk of organ dysfunction or failure due to COVID-19 than people with blood groups O or B. In addition, patients with blood groups A and AB were no longer at risk of overall hospital stays than patients with type O or B in the intensive care unit (ICU) longer, which may also indicate a higher degree of severity of COVID-19.

“The unique part of our study is our focus on blood type severity for COVID-19. We have observed this lung and kidney damage and will want to investigate the effects of blood type and COVID-19 on other vital organs in future studies, “said study author Mypinder S. Sekhon of the University of British Columbia. “Of particular importance as we continue to traverse the pandemic, we now have a wide range of survivors exiting the acute portion of COVID-19. However, we need to explore mechanisms by which we can risk stratify those with longer-term effects. ”

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Materials provided by American Society of Hematology. Note: The content can be edited by style and length.