Eosinophilia in blood donors

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough eosinophilia is a condition that appears frequently in clinical practice, its prevalence in the general population in Spain is not well-defined. ObjectiveTo determine the prevalence of eosinophilia in blood donors. MethodologyDescriptive, cross-sectional study. Asymptomatic blood donors from the Haemotherapy and Blood Donation Centre of Castilla-León during January 2016 to December 2016 were included in the analysis. Principal findingsOf a total of 63,941 donors, 8616 (13.5%) presented with eosinophilia, 3839 (44.6%) had relative eosinophilia, 4590 (53.3%) had mild eosinophilia, 185 (2.1%) had moderate eosinophilia and 2 (.02%) had severe eosinophilia. Of the donors with eosinophilia, 6401 (74.3%) were men. The mean of age (±SD) of was 41.4 years (±12.6); 8299 (13.5) were autochthonous, and 317 (13.0) were migrants. There were no significant differences in the presence of eosinophilia between immigrants and natives (p=0.47). Eosinophilia in the migrant cohort showed significant differences (p<0.005). Eosinophilia was higher among immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe (17.2%), followed by Latin America (14.8%), and North Africa (13.4%). The majority of blood donors did not take any medication related to eosinophilia, and none had any disease associated with eosinophilia. ConclusionsEosinophilia is a frequent diagnosis in asymptomatic donors and it is not associated with being native-born or immigrant; however, in the migrant group there were differences according to the area of origin. The presence of eosinophilia was not associated with drugs or other obvious pathologies. A future prospective study must be performed in order to clarify the causes of eosinophilia in donors.