Evaluation of hemoglobin screening methods in prospective blood donors

This study evaluates the performance characteristics of the copper sulfate screening test in routine bloodmobile operations and compares the performance of the copper sulfate test with that of a miniphotometer method of hemoglobin measurement. The copper sulfate and miniphotometer tests provide equivalent pass/fail classification of male donors with a high sensitivity and total efficiency. For female donors, both test methods show substantially lower sensitivity and total efficiency than for male donors; however, the miniphotometer is significantly more sensitive than the copper sulfate test in identifying eligible female donors. The distribution of donor hemoglobin values relative to cutoff values for acceptance may explain the male-female differences in screening test performance characteristics.