Understanding the Effects of Repeated Blood Donations on Regular Donors Through Mathematical Modeling

Several experimental studies have shown that iron deficiency is common among regular blood donors. Indeed, the recommended inter-donation interval of 56 days (8 weeks) in the United States and Canada is based on old studies investigating only hemoglobin recovery after blood donation. Recent experimental studies, which measure other iron parameters after blood donation, have shown that this interval is very short to prevent iron deficiency in regular blood donors. We have proposed a mathematical model of erythropoiesis and iron metabolism, and apply it to this problem. The model consists of seven coupled delayed differential equations (DDEs). Mathematically, including delays in our model has the advantage of minimizing the number of variables to circumvent issues with parameter identifiability that arise in ODE many-compartment models. The use of distributed delays allows us to capture the effect of the regulating hormone on erythroid precursor cells. We show how to reformulate the distributed DDEs so that solutions can be simulated using a standard MATLAB solver. We present numerical simulations of our model for single and multiple blood donation scenarios. We show the effect of repeated blood donations on the hemoglobin level and iron storage. We show the impact of lengthening the inter-donation interval and giving iron supplementation on the recovery of hemoglobin and storage iron. We also discuss the significant effect of having dietary iron intake below the recommended daily amount on hemoglobin and storage iron.

Understanding the Effects of Repeated Blood Donations on Regular Donors Through Mathematical Modeling

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Shaza Alsibaai

"Understanding the Effects of Repeated Blood Donations on Regular Donors Through Mathematical Modeling"

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