Amongst the total donors deferred during this period, 37% deferrals were due to low Hb levels.
116 (29%) of the donors deferred by CuSO4 method had their Hb level >12.5 g/dl on analysis with the Coulter counter.
The Hb level of 131 (32.8%) of deferred donors was between 12 and 12.4 gm/dl by the Coulter counter method.
The hematocrit value of these donors was between 36% and 40% .
The sensitivity and specificity, PPV and NPV of the other three hemoglobin screening methods with reference to the Coulter counter using capillary and venous blood samples are shown in table 2.
The concordance correlation coefficient between Hemocue and the reference method was 0.74 (capillary samples) and 0.89 (venous samples) whereas the corresponding values obtained for Cyanmeth Hb method were 0.78 and 0.91, respectively.
The mean Hb value as obtained by the reference method was higher with capillary samples in comparison to the venous samples (Mean difference=0.2g/dl)