Badar Ahmed, Ahmed Ayesha, Ayub Muhammad, Ansari Ahmad Kamal
Department of Physiology, Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad.
J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. 2002 Apr-Jun;14(2):24-7.
A healthy blood donor loses about 225 mg of iron per donation. This loss is made up very quickly by mobilizing the iron stores in form of ferritin, followed by replenishing the iron stores if diet is adequate. The situation, however, is different for donors with high frequency of blood donations. Their iron stores are under a constant pressure. In the absence of iron replacement this can lead to emptying of iron stores. We undertook this study to evaluate the effect of frequent blood donations on iron stores of regular male blood donors in Karachi.
This study was carried out at Department of Physiology, BMSI, JPMC, Karachi. Our subjects were 8 groups each with 20 non-anaemic male donors, of 20-40 years age (total = 160). The first group was 'control group' that comprised of first time donors, while the rest 7 groups comprised of donors who had donated 1-7 times in the last two years, the latest being at least 3 months back. The iron stores were measured by determining serum ferritin levels.
We found reduction in serum ferritin with increasing frequency of blood donations that became very significant in donors donating 4 or more times in the last two years. Finding of 40% and 50% iron deficient subjects in the groups donating 6 and 7 times in two years respectively was a surprise for us, as this much high frequency has not been reported from elsewhere. We have tried to justify this extraordinary high frequency with the studies reporting low iron status of Pakistanis and Karachi population.
Iron deficiency is very common in regular blood donors of Karachi, there is an immediate need to educate the donors about iron supplementation and yearly ferritin checking of so called 'super donors'.
健康的献血者每次献血会损失约225毫克铁。通过动员铁蛋白形式的铁储存，这种损失会很快得到补充，如果饮食充足，随后会补充铁储存。然而，对于献血频率高的献血者来说情况则不同。他们的铁储存持续面临压力。在没有铁替代的情况下，这可能导致铁储存耗尽。我们进行这项研究以评估频繁献血对卡拉奇定期男性献血者铁储存的影响。
本研究在卡拉奇JPMC的BMSI生理学系进行。我们的受试者分为8组，每组20名20 - 40岁的非贫血男性献血者（共160名）。第一组为“对照组”，由首次献血者组成，其余7组由过去两年内献血1 - 7次的献血者组成，最近一次献血至少在3个月前。通过测定血清铁蛋白水平来测量铁储存。
我们发现随着献血频率增加，血清铁蛋白降低，在过去两年内献血4次或更多次的献血者中这种降低非常显著。在两年内献血6次和7次的组中分别发现40%和50%的缺铁受试者，这让我们感到惊讶，因为其他地方尚未报道过如此高的频率。我们试图用报道巴基斯坦人和卡拉奇人群铁状态低的研究来解释这种异常高的频率。
缺铁在卡拉奇的定期献血者中非常普遍，迫切需要对献血者进行关于铁补充和对所谓“超级献血者”每年进行铁蛋白检查的教育。
