Expanding role of a blood center

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was performed on prospective donors who reported to the Department of Transfusion Medicine. Individuals deferred due to hypertension contributed the study population. They were compared with age and sex matched donor controls. Demographic details were recorded in a proforma. On identification of a hypertensive individual, consequent two comparable donors were taken as controls with a total of 50 hypertensive subjects. Hypertensive status of the subjects were assessed based on the criteria formulated by the WHO-ISH and US Seventh Joint National Committee report on prevention, detection, evaluation and treatment of high blood pressure. RESULTS: About 0.95% of healthy blood donors had undetected hypertension. Mean age at detection of hypertension in the study group was 35.44 ± 7.69 years. Higher BMI was observed in the hypertensive group compared to normotensive control group with P value significant at 0.0001. CONCLUSION: About 1% of healthy individuals were found to have undetected hypertension. Though the study was not designed to determine the prevalence of hypertension in the region, it is a rough estimate of the proportion of undetected hypertension in the local population as donors are considered as representative of healthy population.