Efficacy of Reticulocyte Hemoglobin Content and Immature Reticulocyte Fraction in Early Diagnosis of Latent Iron Deficiency in Blood Donors

Abstract Objective: To assess the utilization of Reticulocyte Hemoglobin content and Immature Reticulocyte Fraction in detecting of Latent Iron deficiency in Blood donors. Methodology: A prospective Cross sectional study was conducted at Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Hospital in collaboration with Pakistan Institute of Medical sciences, Islamabad Pakistan. The study was conducted over a period of 6months from July 2023 to December 2023. A total of 191 donors were included in study and evaluated by using Mindray BC-6200 hematology analyzer. Serum Ferritin was correlated with Reticulocyte parameters. The agreement between Ferritin and Mindray BC-6200 was assessed by applying P- test. Results: The mean age of donor group was 36.35 years with predominatly male donors (82%). About 65% were repeated donors. The sensitivity of RHE in correlation with serum ferritin was 87.5% and Specificity of this test was 93.7% and the sensitivity of IRF in correlation with serum ferritin was 68.7% and Specificity of this test was 86.75%.The P-value is significant in both parameters <0.01. Conclusion: RHE can be used as a first line test in detecting Latent Iron deficiency in donors and can replace serum Ferritin, IRF is less sensitive and specific as compared to RHE. Key words: blood donors, latent iron deficiency, reticulocyte haemoglobin expression (RHE), immature reticulocyte fraction (IRF), serum ferritin