Abstract
Objectives To measure serum neopterin levels in blood donors of the local population and to study its relationship with age and blood group of transfusion-transmitted infection (TTI) negative blood donors. Methodology This cross-sectional study was carried out in the Department of Physiology at Liaquat National Hospital and Medical College (LNMC), Karachi, Pakistan, in collaboration with the Basic Medical Sciences Institute and Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC). Data were collected from January 2018 to July 2018. A total of 174 blood donors participated in the study, who were selected by using a random sampling technique. They were screened through the standard procedures used for screening at the JPMC blood bank for TTIs as per the World Health Organization recommendations. Serum neopterin was estimated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. Data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Chi-square and ANOVA (analysis of variance) were applied, and tests of significance were kept as P < 0.05. Results Neopterin level in the serum of TTI-positive blood donors was 15.1 ± 4.59 nmol/L, which was above the normal range and cutoff value of 10 nmol/L, whereas the neopterin level in the serum of TTI-negative blood donors was 6.1 ± 1.82 nmol/L (P = 0.001). In TTI-negative blood donors, the neopterin levels were within normal limits and were not influenced by age and blood groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions Serum neopterin levels did not report any significant difference in terms of age and blood group of TTI-negative blood donors and were seen to be within normal limits.