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

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 microg/dl (19.7-338.0), TIBC 224.7 microg/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 x 10(9)/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.