CLINICAL USEFULNESS OF MEAN CORPUSCULAR VOLUME AND RED-CELL DISTRIBUTION WIDTH IN IRON-DEFICIENT BLOOD-DONORS

The clinical efficacy of the red cell distribution width (RDW >14.2%) and the mean corpuscular volume (MCV <83.5 fL) in detecting iron defic iency was evaluated in female blood donors. Employing transferrin satu ration <17%, the prevalence of iron deficiency in 296 female donors wa s 23%, and in 635 male donors 1.1%. In the total female population, th e sensitivity and specificity of the indices were 78% and 92%, respect ively, but they were higher in anemic females (sensitivity 90% and pos itive predictive value 92%) than in non anemic females (sensitivity 58 % and positive predictive value 50%). Our results confirm that there i s an overlap in the levels of RDW and MCV between the iron and non iro n deficient subjects, and these overlap seems to be more remarkable in the non anemic individuals. We conclude that these erythrocyte indice s could be useful to identify iron deficiency in anemic female blood-d onors, but not in non anemic ones.