Ferritin-guided management of blood donors with a marginally low pre-donation haemoglobin and its effect on the number of donations in the following 3 years.

Background: The handling of donors with a marginally low haemoglobin is difficult and problematic and various methodologies have been applied to address this issue.

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess whether measurement of serum ferritin and subsequent management of donors with a marginally low haemoglobin had any impact on the number of subsequent donations.

Materials and methods: Such donors were prospectively randomised into an intervention group whereby their serum ferritin was measured and those in the control group where routine assessments were done as per current SOPs. In the intervention group, action was taken depending on how low the serum ferritin was. The comparator in both study arms was the number of donations that were given during the follow-up period of 3 years.

Results: We could not find any significant consequence due to this intervention.

Discussion and conclusion: The potential reasons are discussed, and we are proposing further studies on subsets of donors who are more prone to iron deficiency.