Professional and voluntary blood: a preliminary study in Iran

Among professional and voluntary blood donors in Tehran HBsAg carriers and RPR positives were found more frequently in the former group. The levels of haemoglobin, serum total protein and serum immunoglobulins G, A and M were significantly lower in commercial blood. Measurement of transferrin saturation showed that one-third of professional donors were quite severely iron deficient. For fractionation purposes the maximum theoretical yield from commercial plasma is 16% less IgG than from plasma of voluntary donors, 21% less total immunoglobulins and 20% less albumin.