Abstract: Objective Iron accumulation was related to osteoporosis, diabetes, and other diseases. Men and postmenopausal women were at risk of iron accumulation. The aim of this study was to explore the influence of plasmapheresis donors on serum ferritin (SF) level and iron accumulation rate in the two groups by investigating the status of SF in plasmapheresis donors who were men and postmenopausal women. Methods SF was detected in male and postmenopausal female regular and new plasmapheresis donors recruited according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Regular plasmapheresis donors were taken as the investigation group, and new plasmapheresis donors were taken as the control group. The potential factors that might affect the level of SF were collected. Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to correct for confounding factors and compare the difference in SF levels between regular and new plasmapheresis donors. The WHO iron accumulation judgment standard was used to screen the iron accumulation of plasmapheresis donors, and the multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to compare the difference in iron accumulation probability between the regular and the new plasmapheresis donors after correcting for the confounding factors. Since ferritin is mostly found in hemoglobin (Hb), we also measured the Hb level of subjects to explore the effect of plasmapheresis donation on Hb level. Results SF of male regular plasmapheresis donors was 134.78 μg/L (77.57~202.52) and for new plasmapheresis donors was 178.22 μg/L (113.07~269.44). The SF of postmenopausal female regular plasmapheresis donation was 73.26 μg/L (41.54~112.22), 97.26 μg/L (57.94~152.79) for new donors. Multivariate linear regression showed that the SF level of male regular plasmapheresis donors was significantly lower than that of new plasmapheresis donors (P<0.001), and that of postmenopausal female regular plasmapheresis donors was significantly lower than that of new plasmapheresis donors (P=0.001). The iron accumulation rate of male regular plasmapheresis donors was 25.36%, and that of new plasmapheresis donors was 43.72%. The iron accumulation rate of postmenopausal female regular plasmapheresis donation was 4.00%, and that of new plasmapheresis donation was 26.60%. Multivariate logistic regression results showed that the iron accumulation probability of male regular plasmapheresis donors was significantly lower than that of new plasmapheresis donors (OR=0.404, 95% CI: 0.262~0.623, P<0.001), and that of postmenopausal female regular plasmapheresis donors was significantly lower than that of new plasmapheresis donors (OR=0.096, 95% CI: 0.02~0.47, P=0.004). There was no significant difference in Hb levels between regular and new plasmapheresis donors. Conclusion There was a statistically significant correlation between plasmapheresis donation and the reduction of SF level and iron accumulation rate. Whether it could relieve iron accumulation needs further causal inference.

Key words: Plasmapheresis donation, Men, Postmenopausal women, Serum ferritin, Iron accumulation