The effects of saffron supplementation on inflammation and hematological parameters in patients with sepsis: a randomized controlled trial

Hassanizadeh, Shirin; Alikiaii, Babak; Rouhani, Mohammad Hossein; Talebi, Shokoofeh; Mokhtari, Zeinab; Sharma, Manoj; Bagherniya, Mohammad

doi:10.1186/s12937-025-01148-y

Table 5 Changes from baseline in hematological parameters in the saffron and placebo groups

From: The effects of saffron supplementation on inflammation and hematological parameters in patients with sepsis: a randomized controlled trial

Variables	Group	Before intervention	After intervention	P-value^**	Mean changes^#	p-value
WBC (µL)	Saffron	13731.06 ± 3718.4	9554.71 ± 2961.91	<0.001	-4176.34 ± 4063.01	<0.001
	Placebo	13499.43 ± 4790.74	13,561 ± 3316.32	0.92	61.57 ± 4118.97
	P-value	0.79	<0.001
	Cohen’s d effect size (95% CI)	0.05 (-0.36, 0.47)	-1.27 (-1.69, -0.86)
Neutrophils (%)	Saffron	74.31 ± 9.59	71.83 ± 15.22	0.34	-2.47 ± 17.37	0.48
	Placebo	77.07 ± 8.43	74.13 ± 7.84	0.05	-2.93 ± 9.95
	P-value	0.15	0.37
	Cohen’s d effect size (95% CI)	-0.31 (-0.72, 0.11)	-0.19 (-0.61, 0.23)
Lymphocyte (%)	Saffron	17.19 ± 7.52	17.58.5.37	0.60	0.39 ± 5.09	0.21
	Placebo	14.61 ± 5.82	15.33 ± 5	0.46	0.71 ± 6.46
	P-value	0.07	0.04
	Cohen’s d effect size (95% CI)	0.38 (-0.04, 0.8)	0.43 (0.01, 0.85)
RBC (µL)	Saffron	3.83 ± 0.61	3.75 ± 0.45	0.32	-0.080.54	0.18
	Placebo	3.58 ± 0.34	3.54 ± 0.35	0.49	-0.03 ± 0.36
	P-value	0.02	0.02
	Cohen’s d effect size (95% CI)	0.51 (0.09, 0.93)	0.52 (0.1, 0.94)
Hb (g/dL)	Saffron	10.36 ± 1.49	10.24.1.58	0.62	-0.11 ± 1.55	0.19
	Placebo	10.16 ± 1.42	9.81 ± 1.18	0.10	-0.34 ± 1.38
	P-value	0.50	0.14
	Cohen’s d effect size (95% CI)	0.14 (-0.28, 0.56)	0.31 (-0.11, 0.73)
Hct (%)	Saffron	31.44 ± 4.93	32.05 ± 4.87	0.37	0.60 ± 4.54	0.06
	Placebo	30.79 ± 4.57	30.39 ± 2.66	0.56	-0.39 ± 4.55
	P-value	0.51	0.04
	Cohen’s d effect size (95% CI)	0.14 (-0.28, 0.56)	0.42 (0.00, 0.84)
MCV (fl.)	Saffron	84.48 ± 6.47	85.15 ± 5.74	0.25	0.66 ± 3.84	0.58
	Placebo	85.06 ± 5.30	85.90 ± 4.39	0.10	0.84 ± 3.44
	P-value	0.64	0.48
	Cohen’s d effect size (95% CI)	-0.1 (-0.52, 0.32)	-0.15 (-0.57, 0.27)
MCH (pg)	Saffron	27.10 ± 2.65	26.97 ± 1.97	0.54	-0.12 ± 1.43	0.54
	Placebo	27.01 ± 1.77	27.03 ± 1.65	0.86	0.02 ± 0.90
	P-value	0.86	0.18
	Cohen’s d effect size (95% CI)	0.04 (-0.38, 0.46)	-0.03 (-0.45, 0.39)
MCHC (g/dl)	Saffron	32.10 ± 1.81	31.66 ± 1.15	0.06	-0.43 ± 1.55	0.28
	Placebo	31.67 ± 1.14	31.80 ± 1.42	0.60	0.12 ± 1.60
	P-value	0.18	0.61
	Cohen’s d effect size (95% CI)	0.28 (-0.13, 0.70)	-0.11 (-0.53, 0.31)
PLT (µL)	Saffron	278990.79 ± 130107.67	308031.36 ± 78889.79	0.11	29040.56 ± 120466.12	0.2
	Placebo	243621.4 ± 112479.34	318532.10 ± 108062.43	<0.001	74910.70 ± 108276.04
	P-value	0.17	0.60
	Cohen’s d effect size (95% CI)	0.29 (-0.13, 0.71)	-0.11 (-0.53, 0.31)

Abbreviations: WBC; white blood cell count, RBC; red blood cell, PLT; Platelet, Hb, hemoglobin; Hct, Hematocrit, CI: confidence interval
Data are shown as means ± standard deviation
*P-values were obtained from independent sample t-test, **paired-sample t-test, and ^#analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with the adjustment for baseline values

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