Iron deficiency develops in over one third of regular, repeat blood donors. In order to exam the physiological consequences of iron deficiency in blood donors, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (Donor Iron Deficiency Study [DIDS]) screened 2,011 adult blood donors. Of these, 110 met the criteria for iron deficiency (ferritin <15 µg/L and zinc protoporphyrin >60 µMol/mol heme) but were still eligible to donate. In total, 79 subjects were enrolled and donated an initial whole blood unit that was stored for 40-42 days and tested for blood quality using the standard—51-chromium post transfusion recovery. Subjects were than randomized within 30 days to receive either one gram of low molecular weight iron dextran (n=39) or saline placebo (n=40) intravenously. A second autologous whole blood donation was then scheduled approximately 150 days following randomization, and a second 51-chromium post-transfusion recovery study was performed after 40-42 days of storage. Iron deficiency did not affect either the post-transfusion recovery of the RBCs; the mean change in post-transfusion recovery was 1.6% (95% C.I., -0.5 to 3.8) and -0.4% (95% C.I., -2.0 to 1.2) with and without iron, respectively. Furthermore, iron deficiency did not affect the cognition or well-being of donors based on the National Institutes of Health’s Cognition Fluid Cognition Fluid Composite Score nor other secondary tests. RBCs from iron deficient donors did not affect the post-transfusion recovery of the RBCs in recipients nor the well-being of the donors.
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