• Rashmi Tondon, Anupam Verma, Prashant Pandey, and Rajendra Chaudhary.
• Department of Transfusion Medicine, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow- 226014, UP, India.
• Asian J Transfus Sci. 2009 Jul 1; 3 (2): 66-9.

BackgroundDespite the wide range of methods available for measurement of hemoglobin, no single technique has emerged as the most appropriate and ideal for a blood donation setup.Materials And MethodsA prospective study utilizing 1014 blood samples was carried out in a blood donation setting for quality evaluation of four methods of hemoglobin estimation along with cost analysis: Hematology cell analyzer (reference), HCS, CuSO4 method and HemoCue.ResultsMean value of HemoCue (mean +/- SD = 14.7 +/- 1.49 g/dl) was higher by 0.24 compared to reference (mean +/- SD = 13.8 +/- 1.52 g/dl) but not statistically significant ( P > 0.05). HemoCue proved to be the best technique (sensitivity 99.4% and specificity 84.4%) whereas HCS was most subjective with 25.2% incorrect estimations. CuSO4 proved to be good with 7.9% false results. Comparative cost analysis of each method was calculated to be 35 INR/test for HemoCue, 0.76 INR /test for HCS and 0.06-0.08 INR /test for CuSO4.ConclusionCuSO4 method gives accurate results, if strict quality control is applied. HemoCue is too expensive to be used as a primary screening method in an economically restricted country like India.

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