Hemoglobin and Hematocrit Values of Blood Donors

Abstract

This study reports hemoglobin and hematocrit values of over 1,000 prospective blood donors who presented themselves to Red Cross Bloodmobile clinics in the Greater Cleveland area. The donors were simultaneously tested by the copper sulfate test (used by the Red Cross as the only blood screening test) and by the microhemato‐crit and cyanmethemoglobin tests. The data demonstrate the value of copper sulfate as a highly efficient test in screening out donors who could not pass the quantitative tests. In this study, however, the copper sulfate test rejected 10.2% of the presenting donors, over half of whom passed both microhematocrit and cyanmethemoglobin criteria. Salvaging these rejected donors by added quantitative testing would represent about 6,000 units of blood annually in Northern Ohio alone.