Comparison of haemoglobin estimation by Sahli’s two - time average, Sahli’s three - time average methods and automated analyzer method: A different approach in clinical pathology

Abstract

Introduction: Haemoglobin is the iron containing oxygen carrying protein in the red blood cells in all the vertebrates. There are many methods for the estimation of haemoglobin with its pros and cons. Sahli’s method is the traditional manual and low-cost effective method with a few disadvantages. Cyanmethemoglobin method is the alternative manual method for Sahli’s method discovered to overcome the disadvantages of the Sahli’s method. The Auto analyzer method is the newly advent commonly used method with a disadvantage of high instrumental charges. This study is to compare the manual Sahli’s method with a few technical changes and the auto analyzer method of hemoglobin estimation. Materials and Methods: A prospective study was conducted on forty blood samples which were collected from randomly selected patients attending routine blood examination, after obtaining their consent. With the samples, Haemoglobin was estimated by two methods, Sahli’s Haemoglobin estimation method for three times and Electronic coulter counter method (Automated analyzer) for one time. The average of the first two times value [S-2] and the all three times value [S-3] of Sahli’s method and the value obtained from the Autoanalyzer method [R] were entered using Microsoft Office Excel 2010 and were then exported to SPSS version 23 for statistical analysis.Results and Conclusion: The results obtained were collected in spreadsheets and analysed statistically. Out of three different measurement methods for Hemoglobin estimation, we found Sahli’s Three-time average has higher degree of agreement with auto analyzer method, has no significant difference with auto analyzer method and acceptable as a better alternative for auto analyzer method.