Objective: Our purpose was to determine the efficacy of the heteroduplex generator in the prenatal analysis of rhesus CcDEe blood groups.
Study design: A cross-sectional study was performed evaluating fetal samples from 85 women undergoing prenatal diagnosis and comparing the results with standard immunologic serotyping on cord blood delivery.
Results: Of the 85 samples, 64 were tested, for all CcDEe alleles: one case was discrepant. Twenty-one cases were tested solely for the D antigen. Two novel genotypes were detected in the population by heteroduplex generator and confirmed by deoxyribonucleic acid sequencing. Five cases were indeterminate because of an indistinct banding pattern.
Conclusions: Heteroduplex analysis can identify rhesus blood group alleles and is inexpensive, rapid, and does not use radioactive isotopes.