Complete blood and absolute CD4+ve T lymphocyte counts of whole blood donors at a hospital blood center in Nigeria

Background: Comprehensive routine screening and adequate selection of the prospective whole blood donor protects his health and safety as well as that of the recipient. Objectives: The main objective of this study was to determine the complete blood and absolute CD4+ T lymphocyte cell counts of apparently healthy prospective whole blood donors. Participants and Methods: This was a hospital based prospective study. A form was designed by the researchers for data collection. The socio demographic status, complete blood cells and absolute CD4+vel counts of apparently healthy whole blood donors who had tested seronegative for HIV, hepatitis B and C markers was captured . Obtained data was analysed with the statistical package for the social scientist software version 20 Results: One hundred male (97.1%) and three female (2.9%) apparently healthy prospective whole blood donors were studied. The median age of study subjects was 30 years. Obtained median blood cell values were 13g/dl, 40%, 4.9/nl and 203.9/nl for haemoglobin concentration, haematocrit, total white cell and platelet counts respectively. The median values for the mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) of studied blood donors were 32.6g/dl,27.7pg and 85.7fl respectively. Observed prevalence of subnormal blood cell counts for haemoglobin concentration, total white cells and platelets were 12.6%, 25.2%, 13.6% respectively. Also subnormal values for MCHC, MCH, and MCV were 11.7%, 26.2%, 16.5% respectively among studied whole blood donors. No higher than normal blood cell count values were observed. Median values for erythrocyte sedimentation rate and CD4+ T lymphocytes were 8.4mm/hr and 876.2cells/µl respectively. The percentage of subnormal CD4+T lymphocyte count was18.4% Conclusion: A significant percentage of apparently healthy prospective whole blood donors had subnormal blood cell and CD+ve T lymphocyte values. Obtained normal values were comparable with local reference range reports from previous studies in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.