Plateletpheresis donor deferral patterns at a tertiary care hospital in North India: A need for rethink of haemoglobin cutoff.

INTRODUCTION: The donor deferral criteria for blood or apheresis donations are established for two main reasons: (i) to ensure the safety of the blood donor (non-maleficence); (ii) to obtain safe blood of standard quality that has therapeutic benefit for the patient (beneficence). This study was planned to assess the various causes and patterns of plateletpheresis donor deferral in our hospital and to subsequently assess whether any evidence based changes can be done in the current plateletpheresis donor deferral criteria in India to maximize the platelet donor pool without compromising donor safety.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: The present study was conducted from May 2021 till June 2022 in the department of transfusion medicine of a tertiary care hospital in North India. The first part of the study was conducted from May 2021 till March 2022 to assess the various causes of donor deferral by analysing the plateletpheresis donor deferral data during the corresponding period. The second part of the study was conducted from April 2022 till June 2022, to assess: (i) average decrease in haemoglobin after plateletpheresis procedure; (ii) red blood cell loss during plateletpheresis procedure; (iii) to determine whether any correlation exists between donor haemoglobin and platelet yield.

RESULTS: During the study period (May 2021 till March 2022), a total of 260 donors were screened for plateletpheresis, out of which 221 (85%) donors were accepted and 39 (15%) donors were deferred for various reasons. Out of the 39 deferred donors, 33 (84.6%) were temporary deferrals, while 6 (15.4%) were permanent deferrals. Low haemoglobin (Hb<12.5 g/dl) was a cause of deferral in 12.8% (n=5) of the deferred donors. 192 (73.9%) out of the 260 donors were replacement donors. The calculated mean decrease in haemoglobin as a result of plateletpheresis procedure was 0.4 g/dl. No correlation was seen between donor pre-donation haemoglobin and platelet yield (p=0.86, R=0.06, R2 = 0.003). The calculated mean red cell loss as a result of plateletpheresis procedure was 28ml.

CONCLUSION: Low haemoglobin (<12.5 g/dl) is a significant cause of temporary plateletpheresis donor deferral in India. In view of the advancement in plateletpheresis technology, which has resulted in minimal red cell loss with the current generation apheresis devices, haemoglobin cutoff of 12.5 g/dl needs to be reconsidered. Perhaps by performing a multi-centric trial, a consenscus can be reached for revision of haemoglobin cutoff for plateletpheresis donations.