The doctor answered the question, is it true that patients with diabetes mellitus most often require donor blood

Transfusiologist, Deputy Director for Transfusiology of the RSPC Transfusiology and Medical Biotechnologies of Belarus Larisa Gushchina on the air of the project “School of Diabetes” on the YouTube channel “SEE AND LIVE” answered the question, is it true that patients with diabetes mellitus need donor blood more often than others?

Larisa Gushchina explained:

- An unequivocal and affirmative answer to this question is unlikely to succeed. It cannot be said that diabetics lead in the statistics of transfusions. All blood (including patients with sugar diabete) is transfused with certain indications. Of course, patients with diabetes require more attention. They have more severe various diseases. Therefore, they may be more dependent on transfusion. Diabetes is dangerous for its vascular complications. High sugar destroys the walls of blood vessels and kidneys. This leads to chronic kidney disease. The kidneys cease to produce the hormone erythropoietin, severe anemia develops. It is useless to treat such anemia with iron tablets - hemotransfusions are needed.

- In patients with diabetes, the moat is, of course, changed, the doctor emphasized. It has higher viscosity, impaired the aggregation function of red blood cells and their ability to deform. All this ultimately leads to complications of diabetes.

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