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Donor deferral characteristics for plateletpheresis at a tertiary care center in India- a retrospective analysis.

BACKGROUND
The demand for plateletpheresis is increasing day by day due to its many merits over random donor platelets. However, in our country, there is a dearth of apheresis donors due to greater devotion and time required for the procedure and lack of awareness.


AIM
The aim of the present study is to analyse the reasons for deferral of apheresis donors at a tertiary care center.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
This retrospective analysis was conducted to study the causes, frequency and the type of plateletpheresis donor deferral at regional blood transfusion center, Lady Hardinge Medical College and associated Shrimati Sucheta Kriplani Hospital and Kalawati Saran Childrens' Hospital. The study was undertaken over a period of two years (from January 2010 to December 2011.


RESULTS
Out of a total of 343 donors screened, 87 donors were deferred, the overall deferral rate being 25.36%. The most frequent cause of deferral was a low platelet count accounting for 43.5% of all the causes followed by a low hemoglobin level (27.05%). Among the donors deferred for anaemia, 15 out of 23 (65.2%) had hemoglobin in the range of 11.5-12.4gm%, representing 17.2% of all deferrals.


CONCLUSION
Based on these findings and the scarcity of apheresis donors in our country, we are of the opinion that the selection criteria for plateletpheresis donors should be revised to accommodate more donors and reduce deferral rate without compromising on the health of the donors.