Vox sanguinis
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Validity of the haemoglobin colour scale in blood donor screening.
The haemoglobin colour scale (HCS) has been developed as a simple, reliable and inexpensive clinical device for diagnosing anaemia and estimating its severity when laboratory-based haemoglobinometry is not available. The purpose of this study was to assess its validity for screening blood donors for anaemia. ⋯ The operators were able to master the HCS technique after a few minutes of practice, and all found the test to be user friendly and easy to read. The HCS is proposed as a replacement for the copper sulphate method for blood transfusion donor selection.