Ventricular fibrillation is one type of arrhythmia that can be deadly. It occurs when the heart beats with rapid, erratic electrical impulses. This causes pumping chambers in your heart (the ventricles) to quiver uselessly instead of pumping blood. Without an effective heartbeat, blood pressure plummets, cutting off blood supply to your vital organs.
In the ABO system, (and Rhesus D system) all blood belongs to one of four major groups: A+/â, B+/â, AB+/â, or O+/â. The presence (+) or absence (â) of the RhD (Rhesus D) antigen is indicated by the plus or minus following the ABO type. But there are more than two hundred minor blood groups that can complicate blood transfusions. These are known as rare blood types.
Red blood cells carry markers called antigens on their surface that determine oneâs blood type. There are more than 600 known antigens besides A and B. Certain blood types are unique to specific racial and ethnic groups. Therefore it is essential that the donor diversity match the patient diversity. For example, U-negative and Duffy-negative blood types are unique to the African-American community.