Anaemia, iron deficiency and iron deficiency anaemia among blood donors in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: There is paucity of information on the effect of blood donation on iron stores in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The present study was, therefore, designed to assess, using a combination of haemoglobin and iron status parameters, the development of anaemia and prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia in this area of Nigeria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three hundred and forty-eight unselected consecutive whole blood donors, comprising 96 regular donors, 156 relatives of patients and 96 voluntary donors, constituted the study population. Three haematological parameters (haemoglobin, packed cell volume, and mean cell haemoglobin concentration) and four biochemical iron parameters (serum ferritin, serum iron, total iron binding capacity and transferrin saturation) were assessed using standard colorimetric and ELISA techniques. RESULTS: The prevalence of anaemia alone (haemoglobin <11.0 g/dL) was 13.7%. The prevalence of isolated iron deficiency (serum ferritin <12 ng/mL) was 20.6% while that of iron-deficiency anaemia (haemoglobin <11.0 g/dL + serum ferritin <12.0 ng/mL) was 12.0%. Among the three categories of the donors, the regular donors were found to be most adversely affected as shown by the reduction in mean values of both haematological and biochemical iron parameters. Interestingly, anaemia, iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anaemia were present almost exclusively among regular blood donors, all of whom were over 35 years old. CONCLUSION: Anaemia, iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anaemia are highly prevalent among blood donors in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. It will be necessary to review the screening tests for the selection of blood donors and also include serum ferritin measurement for the routine assessment of blood donors, especially among regular blood donors.

Reference percentiles of hematological and biochemical iron values of blood donors in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

In a setting where there is no functional blood transfusion service, there is a need to establish reference values which will assist in determining the cut-off values of the donor pool and also to evaluate anemia. Three hundred and forty eight blood donors of both sexes, aged 18 to 62 years were studied in a cross-sectional descriptive study. Four biochemical parameters: serum ferritin (SF), serum iron (SI), total iron binding capacity (TIBC) and transferrin saturation (TS) and four hematological parameters: hemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV), total white blood cell count (WBC) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), were assessed. The median and percentile ranges (10-90% percentile) of the biochemical and hematological parameters were as follows: SF 46.8 ng/ml (0.0-173.1), SI 85.9 microg/dl (19.7-338.0), TIBC 224.7 microg/dl (60.9-541.4), TS 41.2% (15.3-90.6), Hb 12.9 g/dl (7.74-15.6), PCV 38.0% (22.9-47.0), WBC 4.5 x 10(9)/l (3.0-8.0) and ESR 8.0 mm/h (1.0-24.6). The sex of the blood donor volunteers was found to exert an influence on SF, SI, TIBC and WBC in favor of the female; P<0.001. The age of the blood donors had a significant influence on some of the variables especially the hematological variables such as Hb, PCV and ESR (P<0.001). At a cut-off value of Hb 12.0 g/dl, SF 15.0 ng/ml and TS 16, 10.4 and 6.0% had iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia respectively in this study population. There is a high percentage of iron deficiency anemia in this donor population and this calls for urgent attention.