Hypersegmented Neutrophils and Mean Corpuscular Volume in 100 Apparently Healthy Volunteers With Ethanol Abuse– An Analysis

Abstract

BACKGROUNDAlcohol abuse is one of the reasons for medical and surgical illness in developing and developed countries. Haematological complications related to alcohol are manifold including macrocytic anaemia. The early indicator of anaemia in alcoholic individuals can be detected by monitoring Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) and observing peripheral smear for hypersegmented neutrophils. MATERIALS AND METHODSIn the present study, we analysed MCV and hypersegmented neutrophils in 100 alcoholics and compared it with 100 non-alcoholic individuals. RESULTSWe observed that MCV value was between 95 fL to 99 fL in 60 patients and 100 fL and above in 20 patients. Thus, MCV if observed in alcoholic individuals would warrant nutritional supplements, thereby secondary prevention of macrocytic anaemia would be made possible. Also, hypersegmented neutrophils were present in 67 alcoholic patients while only 11 control population had it in their peripheral smears. This suggests that peripheral smear analysis could be practised routinely in rural centres where higher end equipment is not available. Our results show a significant difference (p < 0.0001) in the MCV values and hypersegmented neutrophils between the test and control groups. CONCLUSIONThus, in a low resource setting, analysis for hypersegmented neutrophils in alcoholics and observing MCV values in them would help us predict the onset of macrocytic anaemia at a much early stage and treat them with nutritional supplements.