"An Assessment of Complete Blood Count for Anaemia Evaluation Among Healthy Women of Reproductive Age in Freetown, Sierra Leone"

Abstract

Background: Complete blood count (CBC) parameters which are useful markers of anaemia vary across population. Anaemia is highly prevalent in women of reproductive age in Sub-Sahara Africa, and the very high rate of maternal mortality in lowincome countries has been attributed to haematological complications such as anaemia and thrombocytopenia among other common causes. This study therefore, aims at exploring the result statistics of CBC parameters amongst a healthy population. Specific objectives are to evaluate the mean, median and range of Haemoglobin (Hb), Red cell count (RBC), Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), White Blood Cell Count (WBC) and Platelet (PLT) count using automated analysers and result validated with external quality assessment report. Their indicators were also used to analyse for the prevalence of anaemia, thrombocytopenia and thrombocytosis.Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted on healthy non-pregnant women of reproductive age (18-40years), with normal chest X-ray and ECG report between 2020 and 2022. The samples were derived from archived databank that de-identified all personal data including requesting clinicians. A total of 252 data of eligible participants meeting the acceptance criteria were used in the final analysis. Results:The mean, median and range of the haematological parameters were: Hb (g/dl) mean=10.6, median=10.6, range=4.8-13.3; RBC (x1012/l) mean=4. 56, median=4.43, MCV (fl) mean=83.5, median=84.5, WBC (x109/l) mean= 5.5, median=5.3,; PLT (x109/l) mean=203, median=193, range=85-1033. Using the WHO criteria for anaemia, the prevalence of anaemia in the population was 89.7% of which the defined moderate-anaemia was the predominant degree of anaemia (63.5%). The result further showed a 13.9% thrombocytopenia while thrombocytosis was at 0.8%. Conclusion:A prevalence of 89.7% is high and although most of this fall within the moderate anaemia range, it is still a public health threat to women of reproductive age and thus could contribute poor maternal and foetal health outcomes. Furthermore, the high thrombocytopenia may also impact on pregnancy outcome if untreated. The values of haematological parameters from this study differ from values derived from non-African population as well some African countries, thus there is need to establish the reference range for Sierra Leone as this will give a better picture of the actual situation.