NIH. US: A National Institutes of Health-funded study comparing low dose iron
supplementation to no supplementation in blood donors found that
supplementation significantly reduced the time to recovery of
post-donation lost iron and hemoglobin — an iron-rich protein that
carries oxygen in red blood cells throughout the body.
The results of the Hemoglobin and Iron Recovery Study
(HEIRS), supported by NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
(NHLBI), will appear Feb. 10 in the Journal of the American Medical
Association.
Blood donors are allowed to give one pint of blood every
eight weeks. A major concern is that about 25-35 percent of regular
donors develop iron deficiency. Since iron is needed for red blood cell
production, low iron can cause fatigue and anemia — a condition in
which the blood has a lower than normal number of red blood cells — and
can lead to temporary ineligibility for future donations. It can take
months to recover the lost iron. New research indicates a possible
solution.
“This research brings us another step closer to understanding how to
maintain healthy iron levels in blood donors. Maintaining healthy
iron levels will allow donors to safely continue donating thereby
ensuring a robust blood supply for patients in need,” said Simone Glynn,
M.D., M.S.c, M.P.H., chief of the Blood Epidemiology and Clinical
Therapeutics Branch at NHLBI.
The randomized trial ran from April 2012 to December
2012 at four blood centers in the United States and included 215 blood
donors aged 18 and older. The study was conducted by the
NHLBI-supported Recipient Epidemiology and Donor Evaluation Study-III
(REDS-III), a large, multicenter research program that seeks to
optimize health outcomes in donors and transfusion recipients and to
help ensure the safety and availability of transfused blood products in
the United States and internationally.
“Donating blood is safe and essential for health care.
This study highlights the importance of maintaining iron levels after
blood donation, and shows that supplemental iron effectively restores
hemoglobin, even in donors with higher iron levels,” explained the
study’s principal investigator, Joseph Kiss, M.D., medical director at
the Institute for Transfusion Medicine and associate professor of
medicine, University of Pittsburgh.
The study measured the effect of low dose daily iron
supplementation on the time to recovery of lost hemoglobin and iron
after donating a unit of blood. Participants included 136 females (63
percent) and 79 males (37 percent); 52 donors (24 percent) were 60
years or older. Although all were blood donors, none had donated blood
in the last four months.
Researchers separated the blood donors into two groups
based on their iron levels: a lower iron and a higher iron group. Half
of each group was randomized to take one tablet of ferrous gluconate
(38 mg of low dose iron) daily for 24 weeks following their blood
donation. Hemoglobin and iron levels were measured seven times during
the study. Compared to donors who did not take iron, the donors taking
iron supplements returned to pre-donation hemoglobin levels faster in
both the lower iron (five weeks versus 23 weeks) and higher iron groups
(four weeks versus 11 weeks). Similarly, donors taking iron supplements
recovered lost iron more rapidly than those not receiving supplements
(11 weeks versus more than 24 weeks). Without iron supplementation, two
thirds of the donors did not recover the iron lost from donating blood
after 24 weeks.
“The NHLBI is supporting additional research to address
questions such as who benefits most from iron supplementation, how much
iron should be taken, and for how long. This research can help
encourage blood centers to evaluate best strategies on how to help
donors maintain iron levels and prompt all donors to discuss iron
supplementation with their physician,” concluded Dr. Glynn.
The trial was supported by contracts from the NHLBI
(HHSN268201100001I, HHSN268201100002I, HHSN268201100003I,
HHSN268201100004I, HHSN268201100005I, and HHSN268201100006I).
For additional information or to arrange an interview
with Dr. Glynn please contact the NHLBI office of Communications at
301-496-4236 or NHLBI_news@nhlbi.nih.gov.
To arrange an interview with Dr. Kiss please contact Tamara Kilgore,
at the Institute for Transfusion Medicine at 412-209-7029 or TKilgore@itxm.org.
Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) plans, conducts, and supports
research related to the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of
heart, blood vessel, lung, and blood diseases; and sleep disorders.
The Institute also administers national health education campaigns on
women and heart disease, healthy weight for children, and other topics.
NHLBI press releases and other materials are available online at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov.
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