Research Article A Comparison of Capillary and Venous Blood Haematocrits of Pregnant Women in Nigeria: The Impact on Diagnosis and Prevalence of Anaemia in Pregnancy

Copyright © 2014 Cyril Chukwudi Dim et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Volume of red cells in capillary blood varies from that of venous blood. The magnitude of this variation as well as its impact on the diagnosis of anaemia in pregnancy needs to be studied. This study demonstrates the disparity between capillary and venous PCV in pregnancy.Objectives. To determine whether capillary blood PCV (cPCV) differed from venous blood PCV (vPCV) of normal pregnant women in Enugu, Nigeria, and its effect on diagnosis and prevalence of anaemia.Methods. PCV was estimated using pairs of venous and capillary blood samples from 200 consecutive pregnant women at the Antenatal Clinic of University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria. Results. Participants ’ cPCV (median = 34.0%, IQR = 31.0–35.8) was significantly lower than their vPCV (median = 34.0%, IQR = 32.0–37.0)