Evaluation of Diagnostic Efficacy of Novel Red Blood Cell Parameters as Potential Screening Test for Detecting Latent Iron Deficiency in Blood Donors

Abhishek Shukla; Namrata Punit Awasthi; Pooja Sharma; Vandana Tiwari; V K Sharma; Manish Raj Kulshrestha; Pradyumn Singh; Nuzhat Husain

doi:10.1007/s12288-023-01683-w

Evaluation of Diagnostic Efficacy of Novel Red Blood Cell Parameters as Potential Screening Test for Detecting Latent Iron Deficiency in Blood Donors

Indian J Hematol Blood Transfus. 2024 Jan;40(1):139-145. doi: 10.1007/s12288-023-01683-w. Epub 2023 Aug 15.

Authors

Abhishek Shukla¹, Namrata Punit Awasthi¹, Pooja Sharma¹, Vandana Tiwari², V K Sharma³, Manish Raj Kulshrestha², Pradyumn Singh¹, Nuzhat Husain¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, 226010 India.
² Department of Biochemistry, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences, Gomti nagar, Lucknow, 226010 India.
³ Blood Bank, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, 226010 India.

PMID: 38312185
PMCID: PMC10831009 (available on 2025-01-01)
DOI: 10.1007/s12288-023-01683-w

Abstract

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) forms a major share of global burden of anemia. Frequent blood donation is a common iatrogenic cause of iron insufficiency in healthy adults. Serum iron and hemoglobin levels are normal despite low serum ferritin levels, referred to as latent iron deficiency (LID). Aim of the present study was to evaluate the role of novel RBC parameters-percentage of hypochromic RBCs (%HPO), percentage of microcytic RBCs (%MIC), and haemoglobin content of reticulocytes (MCHr) of Abbott Alinity autoanalyzer as indicators of latent iron deficiency in blood donors. 260 consenting and eligible blood donors were included in the study. Complete blood counts including new RBC parameters on Abbott Alinity autoanalyzer and serum iron profile were measured for all donors. Donors were categorized into LID and No LID based on Ferritin and Transferrin saturation (TSAT). Serum transferrin receptors (sTfR) were studied in a subset of samples [LID (n = 46), No LID (n = 18) and IDA (n = 27)]. Statistical analyses was done on IBM SPSS version 22. Among 260 donors, 56 (21.5%) were found to have LID. The difference in mean values for % HPO, % MIC, and MCHr were not found to be statistically significant in LID and No LID groups. sTfR results between LID, No LID and IDA sub-groups revealed significant difference. This study does not support the role of % HPO, % MIC and MCHr measured on Abott Alinity analyzer, as potential screening parameters for LID amongst blood donors. STfr was more informative in this regard. Further research on much larger sample size is required to confirm these findings.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12288-023-01683-w.

Keywords: % HPO; % MCHr; % MIC; Blood donors; Iron deficiency; Latent iron deficiency.

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