FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON BLOOD GROUPING IN POLIOMYELITIS

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Abstract
A survey of the literature on blood grouping in poliomyelitis shows essential agreement that the incidence of blood group B is slightly decreased and that of blood group O slightly increased in paralytic patients as compared with corresponding normal control populations. Blood group detns. on a series of 220 paralytic poliomyelitis patients from Greater New York during 1944/45 confirmed the shortage of blood group B but indicated a slight increase of blood group A over the normal control figures. This increased percentage of blood group A was caused selectively by elevation of the absolute and relative frequency of subgroup A2, whereas the figures for subgroup A1 remained essentially unchanged. The fact that in the present study blood group A2 predominated among the poliomyelitis patients, whereas in most other studies blood group O was in excess, may be explained on the basis of Thomson''s theory that the so-called agglutinin a2 is specifically directed against O cells. The poliomyelitis series showed a distribution of the Rho factor which differed very little from the normal value. The series of poliomyelitis patients showed an increased occurrence of the "Non-secretor" type against normal control figures. The available data suggest that individuals with blood groups O, A2 and "Non-secretor" types tend to suffer paralytic involvement in poliomyelitis more often than one would expect from the normal distribution figures for these groups; vice versa, individuals with blood groups B and "Secretor" types seem to be somewhat less frequently thus affected as compared with the distribution of these groups in normal populations. The frequency of occurrence of blood group A1 in paralytic patients appears to be essentially the same as found in normal controls. 20 refs.