BLOOD VOLUMES OF PAKISTANI MALE DONORS: IMPLICATIONS FOR BLOOD DONATION.

Authors

  • Nuzhat Salamat

Abstract

Background: Safety of blood donors rest on withdrawing only appropriate quantities of blood.Adjusting the volumes drawn according to the average blood volumes of any population canensure this. This requires knowledge of total blood volume of donors, which should ideally bemeasured by standard methods or derived by alternate suitable method. This observational, crosssectional study was undertaken to calculate blood volumes of Pakistani male donor usingrecommended equations and obtain safe donation volume limits for our population.Methods: Height and weight of male Pakistani donors reporting to Combined Military Hospitalblood bank was recorded by standardized method. Blood volumes were calculated by two differentequations using body surface area. The data was entered in SPSS 10.0 version for Windows andstatistical analysis done. Results: Mean total blood volumes of 625 ma le donors calculated was4819.2 ml with first equation and 4566.8 ml with second equation. 95% CI was between 4796.7and 4841.6 with first equation and 4541.6 and 4591.9 with second equation. The maximumvolumes of donation recommended for western population constitutes less than 12 % of calculatedtotal blood volume of our population, with either equation. This is with in safe limits by anystandard. Conclusion: 450 ml + 45 ml including samples in pilot tubes should be therecommended donation volume in Pakistani donors. The maximum volume being collected inother countries constitute safe limits for Pakistani donors as well. Equations showing bettercorrelation with measured volumes should preferably be used to calculate blood volumes. Impactof collecting blood volumes recommended in this study, on blood donors, should be studied.Key words: Blood volume; blood donor.

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