Frequency of Rh-e Antigen and reference values of Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate and Red Cell Indices in an Undergraduate Students’ population in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Introduction: Red cell antigens alongside red cell indices provide an essential support to the diagnosis and monitoring of haematological diseases while the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) indicates and monitor an increase in inflammatory activity within the body. This study aims to determine Rh-e antigen, Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate and Red cell indices values in apparently healthy undergraduate students of the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Material and Methods: One hundred and fifty (150) undergraduate students aged between 17-28years were enrolled in the study and standard venipuncture technique used to collect 5ml of blood. Determination of the Rh-e antigen was carried out using anti-e monoclonal antibodies (Lorne Diagnostics UK), Red cell indices obtained using BC 5000 Mindray Haematology Analyser and ESR by Westergren method. Results: Among the 150 subjects, 130 (86.6%) were positive while 20 (13.3%) were negative for Rh-e antigen. The mean±SD of the mean cell volume (MCV), mean cell haemoglobin (MCH), mean cell haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), red cell distribution width co-efficient of variation (RDW-CV), red cell distribution width-standard deviation (RDW-SD) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were 83.12 ± 10.74, 31.13 ± 3.25, 34.00 ± 3.32, 13.32 ± 1.61, 39.70 ± 2.26 and 30.36 ± 2.15 in the same order, while the reference ranges were 61.64-104.6 for MCV, 24.63-37.63 for MCH, 27.36–40.64 for MCHC, 10.10–16.54 for RDW (CV), 35.18–44.22 for RDW (SD) and 26.06-34.66 for ESR. Gender had no effect on MCV (p=0.3007) and MCHC (p=0.1436) but significant effect on MCH (p=0.030), RDW-CV (p<0.001), RDW-SD (p=0.0005) and ESR (p=0.036) with a perfect positive correlation (r=1) between all the studied parameters. Conclusion: This study revealed a high (86.6%) prevalence for Rh-e antigen, established normal reference ranges for red cell indices and erythrocyte sedimentation rates and showed that gender has significant effects on MCH, RDW-CV, RDW-SD and ESR among healthy undergraduate students of Rivers State University. These findings are of clinical and research relevance.