Iron deficiency anemia natural history, complications and prognosis
Iron deficiency anemia Microchapters |
Diagnosis |
---|
Treatment |
Case Studies |
Iron deficiency anemia natural history, complications and prognosis On the Web |
American Roentgen Ray Society Images of Iron deficiency anemia natural history, complications and prognosis |
FDA on Iron deficiency anemia natural history, complications and prognosis |
CDC on Iron deficiency anemia natural history, complications and prognosis |
Iron deficiency anemia natural history, complications and prognosis in the news |
Blogs on Iron deficiency anemia natural history, complications and prognosis |
- Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief:
Please help WikiDoc by adding content here. It's easy! Click here to learn about editing.
Overview
Natural History
- The symptoms of iron deficiency are similar as in any other case of anemia.
- The stage of anemia develops when there is chronic deficiency of iron and all the iron stores of body are used up.
- Initially in iron defiicency, no symptoms develop as body has sufficient store of iron in the form of ferritin.
- Normal ferittin levels are 20 to 300 ng/mL. This level denotes suffiicient iron levels in the body.
- Ferittin levels between 20-40 ng/ml denotes iron deficiency without anemia.
- Ferittin levels <20 ng/ml denotes iron deficency with anemia and signs and symptoms of anemia develop at this stage.
- Iron deficiency anemia has age specific presentations:
- Infants (age 0-12 months) and Preschool Children (age 1-5 years)
- Iron-deficiency anemia is defined as a Hb concentration of less than or equal to 10.0 g/dL .
- Developmental delays.
- Behavioral disturbances (e.g., decreased motor activity, social interaction, and attention to tasks)
- Iron-deficiency anemia also contributes to lead poisoning in children by increasing the gastrointestinal tract's ability to absorb heavy metals, including lead.
- Psychiatric illnesses such as unipolar disorder, bipolar disorder and autism spectrum disorder in adolescense.
- Adults (persons aged greater than or equal to 18 years)
- Decreased functional capacity
- Signs of hypoxia due to low oxygen delivery to the tissues.
- Pregnant Female
- Increased chances of pre term labor
- Low birth weight baby
- Infants (age 0-12 months) and Preschool Children (age 1-5 years)
Complications
- Iron deficiency anemia can lead to severe complications if not treated.
- Severe iron deficiency (ferittin <10 ng/mL (<10 mcg/L; <22.5 picoM/L) can lead to severe complications.
- Exercise:
- Fatigue
- Low stamina
- Muscle atrophy
- Decreased aerobic capacity
- Decreased endurance ability
- Heart
- Irregular heart beat
- Cardiac failure
- Dilated cardiomyopathy
- Systolic flow murmur
- Myocardial ischemia
- Angina pectoris
- Haemodynamic instability
- Lungs
- Pulmonary edema
- Dyspnea
- Development delay in children
- Mental retardation
- Behavioral differences
- Psychiatric illness
- Shortened attention span
- Neurocognitive delay
- Pregnancy
- Preterm labor
- Low birth weight baby
- Postpartum depression
- Restless leg syndrome
- Atrophic glossitis
- Alopecia
- Immune system weakness
- Syncope
- Plummer Vinson syndrome
Prognosis
- The prognosis of iron deficiency anemia is good if iron supplementation is started.
- Serum iron levels improve within 2 months of starting treatment.
- Severe iron defiicency is present when ferittin <10 ng/mL and Hb <7mg/dl. At this stage severe complications may start developing.
- The severity of iron deficiency anemia depends on:
- Level of severity.
- Age of onset.
- Presence of chronic disease.
- Speed of onset.
- Cause of iron deficiency.
- Finding the cause of iron deficiency is very important in preventing complications of iron deficieny anemia.
- In cases like chronic diseases, restoring iron stores will not treat the anemia unless the disease is treated as cause of anemia is not decreased iron deficiency but iron trapped in its storage form.
- Reversible causes like bleeding can be managed with blood transfusion and have a good prognosis if blood can be restored in sufficient time .
- Iron supplementation improves learning, memory, and cognitive test performance in adolescents who have low levels of iron. Iron supplementation also improves the performance of athletes with anemia and iron deficiency.