ACCORDING TO Dr. Mikhail Kosiborod of Saint Luke's Mid America Heart and Vascular Institute in Kansas who published their data in the Archives of Internal Medicine, hospital-acquired anemia in patients with acute heart attack is associated with poorer outcomes including higher mortality.  He evaluated 17,676 patients with acute heart attack from 57 U.S. hospitals.

The patients had normal hemoglobin levels at admission. Overall, 20.1 per cent of the patients developed moderate-to-severe anemia (a decline in hemoglobin from normal values to less than 11 g/dL) during their hospital stay.

The mean volume of blood drawn was significantly higher in patients who developed moderate-to-severe anemia (173.8 versus 83.5 mL).

It is possible to reduce this risk by:

1. Reviewing the necessity for routine vein puncture

2. Reducing the volume of blood obtained during a hospitalization.

3. Enlisting the minimum amount of blood required for each test

4. Limiting scheduled phlebotomy

5. Using pediatric blood tubes for blood collection

6. Using 2 or 5 ml syringes instead of 10 ml syringes

7. Using stored serum specimens or storing the first sample of the patient till the day of hospitalization.

8. Rationalization of the routine testing