Context:

The hemoglobin (HB) level is the most-used parameter for screening blood donors for the presence of anemia, one of the most-used methods for measuring Hb levels is based on photometric detection of cyanmetahemoglobin, as an alternative to this technology, Hemo Cue has developed a photometric method based on the determination of azide metahemoglobin.

Objective:

To evaluate the performance of three methods for hemoglobin (Hb) determination in a blood bank setting.

Design:

Prospective study utilizing samples to compare methods for Hb determination.

Setting:

Hemotherapy Service of the Hospital Israelita Albert Eistein, a private institution in the tertiary health care system.

Samples:

Seria blood samples were collected from 259 individuals during the period from March to June 1996.

Main Measurements:

Test performances and their comparisions were assessed by the analysis of coefficients of variation (CV), linear regression and mean differences.

Results:

The CV for the three methods were: Coulter 0.68 per cent, Cobas 0.82 per cent and Hemo Cue 0.69 per cent. There was no difference between the mean Hb determination for the three methods (p>0.05). The Coulter and Cobas methods showed the best agreement and the HemoCue method gave a lower Hb determination when compared to both the Coulter and Cobas methods. However, paris of methods involving the Hemo Cue seem to have narrower limits of agreement (+0.78 and + 1.02) than the Coulter and Cobas combination (+ 1.13).

Conclusion:

The three methods provide good agreement for hemoglobin determination.