Do it Yourself Blood Type Test
Considering the escalating costs of medical services, more and more people across the globe are opting for easy to use medical kits for diagnostic purposes. You can determine minor facts such as your pregnancy status or your blood type at home using any of these kits. If you want to determine your blood type at home, use standard do-it-yourself (DIY) blood-type test kits. These blood-type test kits are user-friendly, reliable and accurate. However, if you don't want to rely on DIY blood-type test kits, you can conduct an easy agglutination test, using simple sterile medical instruments to determine your blood type.
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Things You'll Need
- 1 clean microscope slide
- 1 wax pencil or glass marker
- Sterilized cotton balls
- 70 percent alcohol
- 1 disposable sterile lancet
- 1 disposable sterile plastic pipette
- Bandage strip
- Sterile gloves
- Antibody-A serum
- Antibody-B serum
- Antibody-D (Rh) serum
- 3 toothpicks
Instructions
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Slide Preparation
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Divide a clean microscope slide into three equal sections using a wax pencil or a glass marker.
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Make one big circle in each of the three sections of the slide.
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Label the first circle as 'A', the circle in the middle as 'B' and the last circle as 'D' or 'Rh' and set the slide aside undisturbed until you are ready with the blood sample.
Collecting Blood Samples
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Wipe your left middle finger clean using a sterilized cotton ball dipped in 70 percent alcohol.
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When the finger is dry, puncture it using a disposable sterile lancet. Immediately discard the used lancet into a bio-hazard waste container.
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Use a disposable sterile plastic pipette to draw about three ml blood from the punctured site. Apply a small bandage strip to the site of puncture.
Testing Blood Type
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Put on your sterile gloves and place one drop of blood from the pipette into circle A, circle B and circle D.
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Add antibody-A serum to circle A, antibody-B serum to circle B and antibody-D (Rh) serum to circle D.
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Use three separate toothpicks to mix the blood with the antibody serum in each circle and wait for 10 minutes.
Analyzing the results
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Watch for agglutination or clumping of red blood cells in each of the three circles.
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Determine your blood type based on the agglutination.
If you observe agglutination in circle A and circle D, then your blood type is A-positive.
If you observe agglutination in circle A but not in circle D, then your blood type is A-negative.
If you observe agglutination in circle B and circle D, then your blood type is B-positive.
If you observe agglutination in circle B but not in circle D, then your blood type is B-negative.
If you observe agglutination in circle A, circle B as well as in circle D, then your blood type is AB-positive.
If you observe agglutination in circle A, circle B but not in circle D, then your blood type is AB-negative.
If you do not observe agglutination in either circle A or circle B, but find clumping of cells in circle D, then your blood type is O-positive.
If you do not observe agglutination in any of the three circles, then your blood type is O-negative. -
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Dispose off all blood stained articles including pipette, slide and toothpicks into bio-hazard waste bins and clean up the area.
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Tips & Warnings
Wipe off the first few drops of blood and pipette only the subsequent drops of blood for analysis.
Never reuse a used lancet to puncture your own finger or somebody else's finger. It is absolutely unsafe to do so. Always use a fresh sterile lancet instead.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit blood testing image by John Keith from Fotolia.com
