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Background and Objectives Blood donor enrolment process is frequently based on the sole capillary haemoglobin (Hb) evaluation while platelet donors by apheresis also requires platelet (Plt) count. The ‘sole Hb’ approach prevents a complete donor evaluation and does not allow Plt donor enrolment. To extend blood counts before donations, we evaluated the performances of a multiparametric counter using capillary blood. Materials and Methods The ABX Micros 60 (Micros 60) blood analyzer was employed on capillary blood and compared with venous counts by a reference counter (Coulter AcT 5diff) in a first series of 416 donors and in a second series of 136, after a 3-month period of routine use of this study counter. An average of 50 μl of capillary blood was collected whose 10 μl had been aspirated by Micros 60. Results High correlations were found between capillary counts using Micros 60 and venous counts using the reference counter. Mean Plt counts differed of 37 × 109/l less for capillary approach in the first series of comparisons, but decreased to 10 × 109/l less in the second series due to a greater expertise of operators in capillary sampling. All other parameters were accurate and never reached clinical relevance albeit they showed statistically significant differences. Conclusion Data on Micros 60 demonstrated that capillary predonation counts may represent a feasible and effective approach to realize an accurate enrolment process of blood and Plt donors.

Despite improvements in hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) test sensitivity, post-transfusion hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection still occurs because HBsAg is undetectable during the early window phase (WP) of the infection, in the convalescence core window phase of the infection, or in serologically silent chronic hepatitis or in mutant forms of HBV. HBV-DNA screening using high sensitivity nucleic amplification technology (NAT) assays has recently been introduced to reduce the residual risk of transmission of HBV by transfusion of blood components.Over 1 year 75 063 donations were individually screened for HBV-DNA by the Ultrio Procleix assay on the Tigris platform. The donations were collected in the Latium region, an area of the central Italy, and they accounted for the 40% of the total blood units collected in this area per year. The initial reactive samples were re-tested and confirmed by the discriminatory HBV assay. Additional HBV serological markers were also performed. Suspected WP infections were followed-up to monitor the development of the immune response. All HBV-DNA-positive donors were called back to check up their infectious status.The results of testing the 75 063 donations are: 33 donations HBsAg positive, 31 out of them HBV-DNA-positive and two HBV-DNA negative; 22 donations HBsAg-negative but HBV-DNA positive with low viral load. Six of the 22 were found to be consistently HBV-DNA reactive whereas the remaining 16 donations showed inconsistent results on multiple NAT retesting. One WP infection was confirmed by the follow-up of the donor for 3 months following the index blood donation.In the donor population of the Latium region, NAT screening has revealed a higher than expected number of donors who were HBsAg non-reactive but HBV-DNA-positive with three donors showing HBV-DNA as the only marker of infection. The adoption of genome screening has increased the safety of the blood supply and has also contributed to the protection of donor health by identifying either WP or clinically silent infections.