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Evaluation of three methods for hemoglobin measurement in a blood donor setting
J Rosenblit1, C R Abreu, L N Szterling
1Hemotherapy Service, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, São Paulo, Brazil. jrosen@einstein.br
Context:
The hemoglobin (Hb) level is the most-used parameter for screening blood donors for the presence of anemia, one of the most-used methods for measuring Hb levels is based on photometric detection of cyanmetahemoglobin, as an alternative to this technology, HemoCue has developed a photometric method based on the determination of azide metahemoglobin.
Objective:
To evaluate the performance of three methods for hemoglobin (Hb) determination in a blood bank setting.
Design:
Prospective study utilizing blood samples to compare methods for Hb determination.
Setting:
Hemotherapy Service of the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, a private institution in the tertiary health care system.
Sample:
Serial blood samples were collected from 259 individuals during the period from March to June 1996.
Main Measurements:
Test performances and their comparisons were assessed by the analysis of coefficients of variation (CV), linear regression and mean differences.
Results:
The CV for the three methods were: Coulter 0.68%, Cobas 0.82% and HemoCue 0.69%. There was no difference between the mean Hb determination for the three methods (p>0.05). The Coulter and Cobas methods showed the best agreement and the HemoCue method gave a lower Hb determination when compared to both the Coulter and Cobas methods. However, pairs of methods involving the HemoCue seem to have narrower limits of agreement (+/- 0.78 and +/- 1.02) than the Coulter and Cobas combination (+/- 1.13).
Conclusion:
The three methods provide good agreement for hemoglobin determination.