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

Abstract

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 μg/dl (19·7–338·0), TIBC 224·7 μg/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 × 109/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.