EVALUATION OF STORED IRON DEFICIENCY IN REPEAT PLATELET AND PLASMAPHERESIS DONORS IN JAPAN

Abstract

During platelet and plasmapheresis, a significant amount of blood is lost through the initial test blood collection and the residual blood that remains in the disposable plastic sets.

To address this issue, we examined ferritin levels in 523 blood donors who had not donated whole blood within the previous year. We compared ferritin levels between two groups: those who used only machines with low residual blood (group C) and those with high residual blood (group T).

The study revealed that ferritin levels were less than 12 ng/ml in 33.3% of male donors and 61.1% of female donors who donated 13 to 24 times within the previous year. As donation frequency increased among male donors, the mean ferritin level decreased. However, there was no significant difference in ferritin levels between group C and T among those with 12 or fewer annual donations. Our findings suggest that an elevated number of lifetime blood donations also impacted iron deficiency.

These findings emphasize the importance of regularly monitoring donors' ferritin levels, iron supplementation, reducing donation frequency, and adopting the saline reinfusion procedure to prevent iron depletion.