Estimation of Serum Ferritin Levels in Blood Donors and its Association with Frequency of Blood Donation and Blood Indices

Abstract

Introduction: Blood donation is one of the most significant contributions that a person can make towards the society. A donor generally donates maximum 450 mL of blood at the time of donation. If 450 mL of blood is taken in a donation, men lose 242±17 mg and women lose 217±11 mg of iron. Hence, adequate iron stores are very important in maintenance of the donor’s health. Aim: To assess the influence of frequency of blood donation on iron levels of blood donors by estimating Haemoglobin (Hb) and other blood indices which reflect iron status of blood and serum ferritin which reflects body iron stores. Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional analytical study, conducted on 150 blood donors, 18-40 years of age presenting to the Blood Bank in Government Medical College, Kottayam, Kerala, India, between December 2016 to December 2017. Total of 150 donors were divided into four groups according to the number of donations per year. Group I were the first time donors with no previous history of blood donation, Group II- included those with history of donation once in the previous year, Group III- those donors with history of donation twice in the previous year and Group IV- those having history of donation thrice in the previous year. Six ml of whole blood collected from each donor, two ml was used for estimating Haemoglobin (Hb), Packed Cell Volume (PCV), Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), Mean Corpuscular Hb (MCH), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentration (MCHC) in haematology analyser. Serum separated from remaining four mL of blood underwent ferritin analysis by Chemiluminescence Immunoassay (CLIA) method. Iron stores were considered normal at serum ferritin value from 23.9-336ng/mL in males and 11-307ng/mL in females. Statistical analysis was performed in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test and Pearson correlation test were used to find association between various parameters and collected data. The p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: There was no significant correlation between serum ferritin level and frequency of blood donation. MCH, MCHC showed significant association (p-value 0.039 and 0.007, respectively) with frequency of blood donation. Low positive correlation was seen between Hb and PCV with serum ferritin levels (r=0.381, p-value <0.001 and r=0.354, p-value <0.001, respectively). Conclusion: There is no significant association between frequency of blood donation and serum ferritin levels.