Faculty Collaboration Database

No association between frequent apheresis donation and risk of fractures: a retrospective cohort analysis from Sweden. Transfusion 2017 Feb;57(2):390-396

Date

11/20/2016

Pubmed ID

27859323

Pubmed Central ID

PMC5754008

DOI

10.1111/trf.13907

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85003864956 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   15 Citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Citrate anticoagulation during apheresis induces transient alterations in calcium homeostasis. It is unknown whether the repeated, transient alterations in calcium homeostasis experienced by repeated apheresis donors affects bone turnover to increase fracture risk. Our aim was to investigate the risk of osteoporotic and nonosteoporotic fracture among voluntary, frequent apheresis donors.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: All apheresis donors were identified from the Scandinavian Donations and Transfusions database (SCANDAT2), which includes information on over 1.6 million blood donors from Sweden and Denmark from the years 1968 and 1981, respectively. Only data from Sweden were used for these analyses. Information on fractures was obtained by linking SCANDAT2 to hospital registers. Poisson regression was used to compute incidence rate ratios of fractures in relation to the cumulative number of apheresis donations, both overall and in fixed time windows.

RESULTS: In total, 140,289 apheresis donors (67,970 women and 72,319 men) were identified from the SCANDAT2 database and were followed for up to 23 years. We observed no association between the frequency of apheresis donation and the risk of fracture either in the overall study period or during fixed-length time windows. The incidence rate ratio of fractures in donors who had made 100 or more cumulative apheresis donations was 0.99 (95% confidence interval, 0.92-1.06) compared with donors who had made from 9 to 24 donations. The results were similar in analyses stratified by sex and restricted to postmenopausal women.

CONCLUSIONS: The absence of an association between repeated apheresis donation and fracture risk indicates that apheresis collection is safe with regard to bone health.

Author List

Grau K, Vasan SK, Rostgaard K, Bialkowski W, Norda R, Hjalgrim H, Edgren G, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Recipient Epidemiology and Donor Evaluation Study-III (REDS-III)

Author

Walter Biakowski in the CTSI department at Medical College of Wisconsin - CTSI

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
Blood Component Removal
Blood Donors
Databases, Factual
Denmark
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Fractures, Bone
Humans
Incidence
Male
Middle Aged
Registries
Retrospective Studies
Sweden