PREVALENCE OF IRON DEPLETION IN STORED BLOOD

Abstract

It is the usual practice to bleed donors and store their blood for transfusion purposes. The
aim of this work is to evaluate the depletion of serum iron levels in stored blood. One
hundred blood samples were collected from blood donors at the University of Benin Teaching
hospital and analyzed for iron levels, hemoglobin concentration, packed cell volume and
blood cell morphology using standard methods at day 0 (controls) 15 and day 30.The mean ?
SEM of iron, hemoglobin and packed cell volume were 17.7 ? 1.01 ?mol/L, 12.9 ? 0.71g/l
and 39.0 ? 11.20% at day 0 which served as controls. At day 15 serum iron and packed cell
volume were 18.3 ? 2.22?mol/L and 33.20 ? 9.48% .While at day 30 there was a significant
decrease (p<0.05) in PCV, hb concentrations and serum iron. Red cell crenation was
prominent in all the slides viewed at day 15 and day 30 respectively. There are significant
changes in serum iron, PCV and Hb when blood is stored and used within the shelf life of the
anticoagulant in use