A Study On Changes In Hematological Parameters Due To Multiple Blood Donations

Abstract

BACKGROUND Blood is the living force of our body and currently there are no substitutes for it. People all over the world require blood and its products for various reasons every day. This constant demand of blood is fulfilled by the voluntary unpaid blood donors, who are the lifeline of a blood transfusion service. Hence, the health of these donors is of utmost importance. The only possible adverse effect of blood donation is iron deficiency and anemia in the donors. So, it is important that the blood donors should undergo regular health check-ups to look for signs of anemia. Performing iron studies is not feasible in all the donors. So, there is a need to identify at risk and anemic donors with basic hematological investigations. OBJECTIVE To study the changes in hematological parameters among regular blood donors due to multiple blood donations by comparing them against the normal reference values. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was carried out on the regular blood donors, fulfilling the inclusion criteria, donating at the blood bank at BLDE (DU) Shri B.M. Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Vijayapur and at the voluntary blood donation camps organized by it. Study period: 1st November, 2016 to 30th June, 2018. Two ml of anticoagulated venous blood was taken from the donors before donation and analyzed for RBC count, HCT, Hb, MCV, MCH, MCHC, RDW, WBC count, Differential count and Platelet count using an automated hematology analyzer. XI

RESULTS In the present study, out of the 132 blood donors screened, 52 (39.4%) donors were found to be anemic. Out of these, 44 donors showed mild anemia, 10 showed moderate anemia while 2 were severely anemic. A negative correlation was observed between RBC count, Hb, HCT, MCV, MCH, MCHC and platelet count with number of donations. Significant change was noted in RBC count, Hb and HCT parameters. It was noted that the anemic donors in comparison to the non-anemic donors showed reduction in RBC count, Hb, HCT, MCH, MCHC and increase in RDW, with significant changes seen in Hb, HCT, MCH, MCHC and RDW parameters. It was also observed that many non-anemic donors showed significant changes in other RBC parameters. Out of the 80 non-anemic donors, 32.5% donors had decreased RBC count, 35% showed low MCHC, 11.3% showed low HCT and 28.8% showed increase in RDW levels. An unexpected finding of eosinophilia was also noted in 18.9% of the blood donors. CONCLUSION Prevalence of anemia is high among the regular blood donors, which is mainly due to iron deficiency in the donors. Hence, donor counselling, regular health check up and post-donation free iron supplementation are the need of the hour to keep our blood donors healthy.