Comparison of Blood Counts in Capillary and Venous Blood in Children

Myung Joon Kim; Ji Hoon Jin; Young Se Kwon; Yong Hoon Jun; Soon Ki Kim

doi:10.5045/kjh.2009.44.4.237

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Kim, Jin, Kwon, Jun, and Kim: Comparison of Blood Counts in Capillary and Venous Blood in Children

Original Article

Korean J Hematol 2009;44(4):237-243.

Published online: 20 December 2009

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5045/kjh.2009.44.4.237

Comparison of Blood Counts in Capillary and Venous Blood in Children

Myung Joon Kim, M.D., Ji Hoon Jin, M.D., Young Se Kwon, M.D., Yong Hoon Jun, M.D., Soon Ki Kim, M.D.

Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Inha University, Incheon, Korea

Correspondence to：Soon Ki Kim, M.D. Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Inha University 7-206, Shinheung-dong, Jung-gu, Incheon 400-711, Korea Tel: ＋82-32-890-2843, Fax: +82-32-890-2844 E-mail: pedkim@inha.ac.kr

Received 4 September 2009 Revised 6 October 2009 Accepted 6 October 2009

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

Obtaining a venous blood sample from infants and children can be a painful and traumatic procedure. It has been suggested that capillary blood samples can serve as substitutes for venous blood samples to diagnose anemia. However, few data exist about the correlation between the laboratory results obtained using capillary and venous blood samples. This study was performed to determine if the results from the LC-178CRP^TM are the same as the results from a conventional hematology analyzer using venous blood.

Methods

After informed consent was obtained, paired venous and capillary blood sample were collected simultaneously from 104 children (M：F=50：54). The capillary blood was analyzed using the LC-178CRP^TM, and venous blood was analyzed using an automatic hematology analyzer. The following were compared from capillary and venous samples: CBC, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), red cell distribution width (RDW), and platelet count. The results were analyzed by Pearson's correlation and the Bland Altman Plot method.

Result

The hemoglobin values were similar between the two groups of samples and had a high coefficient correlation (r=0.877). White blood cells, hematocrit, MCV, and MCH also had a significant correlation between capillary and venous blood samples. Based on the Bland-Altman method, the agreement between the two methods was considered good.

Conclusion

The hematologic results from the capillary blood had a close correlation with the conventional venous method, including white blood cell count, and hemoglobin, MCV, and MCH levels. The LC-178CRP^TM should be considered as an alternative for venous blood sampling for the tested parameters in children.

Keywords: Vessel, Blood, Hemoglobin, Hematocrit, Erythrocyte indices

References

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Fig. 1.

Correlation and linearity in HGB.

Fig. 2.

Correlation and linearity in MCV.

Fig. 3.

Correlation and linearity in MCH.

Fig. 4.

Differences against mean for white blood cells by Bland Altman plot.

Fig. 5.

Differences against mean for RBC data by Bland Altman plot.

Fig. 6.

Differences against mean for HGB data by Bland Altman plot.

Fig. 7.

Differences against mean for HCT data by Bland Altman plot.

Fig. 8.

Differences against mean for MCV data by Bland Altman plot.

Fig. 9.

Differences against mean for MCH data by Bland Altman plot.

Fig. 10.

Differences against mean for PLT data by Bland Altman plot.

Table 1.

Hematologic values∗of capillary and venous blood in 104 children

	Capillary	Venous	P-value
WBC×10³/mm³	10.0±4.7	10.8±4.8	0.003
RBC×10⁶/mm³	4.42±0.67	4.31±0.60	0.004
HGB (g/dL)	12.2±2.0	12.1±1.9	0.137
HCT (%)	37.5±6.2	35.6±5.4	＜.001
MCV (fL)	85.2±8.4	83.2±8.8	＜.001
MCH (pg)	27.8±2.9	28.2±2.9	＜.001
MCHC (g/dL)	32.6±0.9	33.9±1.4	＜.001
RDW (%)	14.8±1.4	13.7±2.1	＜.001
PLT×10³/mm³	247.5±129.1	329.0±146.6	＜.001

^∗ Hematologic values are indicated as the mean±standard deviation. Abbreviations: WBC, white blood cell; RBC, red blood cell HGB, hemoglobin; HCT, hematocrit; MCV, mean corpuscula volume; MCH, mean corpuscular hemoglobin; MCHC mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration; RDW, red cell distribution width; PLT, platelet.

Table 2.

Hematologic values of capillary and venous blood according to the age distribution

		Capillary	Venous	P-value
HGB (g/dL)	Neonates (n=10)	13.3±4.1	13.2±4.2	0.715
	Infants (n=26)	11.4±1.3	11.1±1.2	0.177
	≥1 yr (n=68)	12.4±1.6	12.3±1.4	0.476
HCT	Neonates	40.6±12.6	39.4±12.2	0.351
(%)	Infants	35.1±4.5	33.0±3.3	0.007
	≥1 yr	38.0±5.1	36.1±4.0	＜.001
MCV	Neonates	104.2±8.1	103.3±10.7	0.384
(fL)	Infants	83.0±5.80	82.0±6.4	0.048
	≥1 yr	83.2±5.1	80.7±4.4	＜.001
MCH	Neonates	34.1±2.6	34.1±2.6	0.899
(pg)	Infants	27.1±2.5	27.4±2.4	0.008
	≥1 yr	27.2±1.9	27.5±2.0	＜.001

Abbreviations: HGB, hemoglobin; HCT, hematocrit; MCV, mean corpuscular volume; MCH, mean corpuscular hemoglobin.

Table 3.

Correlation between variables capillary versus venous blood

Hematologic variables	Correlation coefficient	P-value
WBC	0.835	＜.001
RBC	0.829	＜.001
HGB	0.877	＜.001
HCT	0.835	＜.001
MCV	0.968	＜.001
MCH	0.970	＜.001
MCHC	0.421	＜.001
RDW	－0.057	0.572
PLT	0.688	＜.001

Abbreviations: WBC, white blood cell; RBC, red blood cell; HGB, hemoglobin; HCT, hematocrit; MCV, mean corpuscular volume; MCH, mean corpuscular hemoglobin; MCHC, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration; RDW, red cell distribution width; PLT, platelet.

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