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Comparison of Two Methods of Capillary Sampling in Blood Pre-Donation Anemia Screening in Brazil
Cristina Rabelo Flor1, André de Oliveira Baldoni1, Sheila de Oliveira Garcia Mateos2,3
1Centro-Oeste Campus, Federal University of São João Del Rei (UFSJ), Divinópolis 35.501-296, MG, Brazil.
Background:
The laboratory tests most used by blood banks to diagnose anemia are the hemoglobin (Hb) and microhematocrit (Hct) tests, measured from capillary samples.
Objective:
To analyze the two capillary screening methods for pre-donation anemia by comparing their agreement in diagnosing anemia.
Method:
A cross-sectional study in a population of 15,521 blood donation candidates for whom information was available on Hb and Hct, performed from capillary blood samples. Hb was determined using the HemoCue® test and Hct by the centrifugation method. The Kappa coefficient was calculated to assess the agreement between the methods. Pearson's correlation tests and gender-adjusted linear regression were used to assess the change in the response variable (Hb) as a function of the explanatory variable (Hct).
Results:
The majority of the study population were men (70.4%), aged between 18 and 44 years (72.1%), who declared themselves white or mixed skin color (85.6%), and had undergone at least 11 years of complete education (72.4%). The Kappa coefficient found was 92.7 and 99.2 for women and men, respectively. Pearson's correlation showed a correlation coefficient of 0.98 and the linear regression graph showed an adequate relationship between the tests with R2 = 0.97.
Conclusions:
Comparing the Hb and Hct capillary tests, it was found that Hct can be safely used to screen for anemia in pre-blood donation.
