The Blood Groups and Secretor Types in Five Potentially Fatal Diseases of Caucasian Children

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Abstract
The possibility of a relationship between blood groups (ABO, MN, Rh, Kell, Duffy and P) and the secretor trait, on the one hand, and 5 different, potentially fatal diseases of childhood, on the other, has been investigated in Caucasian family material (propositus, siblings, father, mother). The various disease groups have been used as controls against one another and in addition, the results of blood groupings in Tecumseh, Michigan, have been available for comparison. Among 21 tests for heterogeneity within the assemblages of patients, fathers, and mothers, statistical significance (P< 0. 05) is observed in only one instance (P system, propositi, P < 0. 001). Among 105 constrasts of patients, mothers, and fathers with the controls there are 4 at the P = 0. 01-0. 05 level (ABO-leukemia, mothers; Rh system-nephritis, fathers; K system-leukemia, patients; P system-nephritis, patients) and one at the 0. 01-0. 001 level (P system-congenital heart disease, patients). In this material, the proportion of P-negative individuals is significantly greater among propositi less than one year of age than among propositi greater than one year of age. It is suggested that some individuals who type P-negative as infants will later type P-positive. Since the proportion of propositi under one year of age was especially high in the case of congenital heart disease, it is felt that herein may lie at least a partial explanation of the most significant association encountered in this study, that between P-negativity and congenital heart disease. The other "associations" can be adequately explained on the basis of chance alone. The data fail to confirm the reported association of blood type O with susceptibility to rheumatic heart disease, but, on the other hand, confirm the reported association between the non-secretor trait and rheumatic disease in the finding of a significant excess of non-secretor propositi over that expected, when the expected number is based on parental gene frequencies.