Blood Drug Testing

how does the blood tests work ?

how many blood types are there? how do specialists find who the parent is by blood testing? do blood matching make better parents?

Public Comments

1. There are in total about 30 different classes of blood types (blood groups) of which the most important are the ABO and Rhesus systems. A group A individual has type A antigens on the red cells and antibodies in the plasma to type B red cells; if in error he is given group B blood, his antibodies would attack and destroy the B red cells, and he would be very ill with a transfusion reaction. Similarly a group B person has antibodies to type A red cells. The situation is similar with Rhesus and the other lesser blood groups. This is the basis of identifying which blood groups you belong to, by mixing samples of your red cells with plasma samples containing known antibodies and observing whether a reaction occurs. Because the blood groups are inherited, there are some possibilities of determining (or excluding) parentage by determining blood groups, but this is nowhere near as specific as DNA testing. Having the same blood group as your partner does not of itself make you better parents.