Switching iron-deficient whole blood donors to plateletpheresis

Iron deficiency is a frequent side effect of whole blood (WB) donation. In contrast, less red blood cell loss and therefore less iron loss results from plateletpheresis.

WB donors presenting a decrease in either hemoglobin (Hb) or ferritin levels were offered to switch to plateletpheresis with or without iron supplementation. We analyzed the effect of this intervention on deferral rates for an insufficient Hb level in 168 donors. Further, we assessed how this intervention affected Hb and ferritin levels, anemia occurrence, and platelet (PLT) concentrate yields in the donors who presented at least four successive times for thrombapheresis.

Switching WB donors to repetitive plateletpheresis procedures resulted in an increase of median Hb (+12 g/L, p < 0.001) and ferritin (+15.5 ng/mL, p = 0.002) values. Anemia and deferral rates were reduced by 23% (p = 0.004) and 13% (p < 0.001). Between high- and low-frequency apheresis donors, no significant differences in Hb and ferritin levels were found. Similarly, discrepancies in Hb and ferritin values between donors that adopted iron supplementation and those who did not were insignificant. The median PLT concentrate yield was 5.43 × 10(11) PLTs.

Switching iron-deficient WB donors to plateletpheresis was an effective intervention that permitted us to correct low Hb and ferritin levels while retaining donors in our pool.