Studien

Stana Simic, Maximilian Karczewski, Silke Klapdor, Albina Nowak, Morton Schubert, Diego Moretti, Dorine W.Swinkels, Felix Beuschlein, Lanja Saleh, Paolo Suter, Pierre-Alexandre Krayenbuehl

Summary

Background:
Iron deficiency without anaemia is highly prevalent and is particularly associated with fatigue, cognitive impairment, or poor physical endurance. Standard oral iron therapy often results in intestinal irritation with associated side effects and premature discontinuation of
therapy, therefore, optimal oral iron therapy with sufficient iron absorption and minimal side effects is desirable.

Methods:
Thirty-six iron-deficient non-anaemic premenopausal women (serum ferritin ≤30 ng/ml, haemoglobin ≥117 g/l) with normal body mass index (BMI) and no hypermenorrhea received 6 mg of elemental oral iron (corresponding to 18.6 mg ferrous sulphate) twice daily for 8 weeks.

Results:
Participants treated with low-dose iron had an average age of 28 years and a BMI of 21 kg/m2. Their serum ferritin and haemoglobin increased significantly from 18 ng/ml to 33 ng/ml (p <0.001) and from 135 g/l to 138 g/l (p = 0.014), respectively. Systolic blood pressure increased from 114 mmHg to 120 mmHg (p = 0.003). Self-reported health status improved after 8 weeks (p <0.001) and only one woman reported gastrointestinal side effects (3%).

Conclusion
This prospective open-label single-arm trial shows that oral iron treatment of 6 mg of elemental iron twice daily over 8 weeks is effective in iron-deficient non-anaemic women. Due to the negligible side effects, low-dose iron treatment is a valuable therapeutic option for iron-deficient non-anaemic women with normal BMI and menstruation. Further placebo-controlled studies with a larger number of participants are needed to confirm these results.

Introduction:
Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anaemia af-fecting over 1 billion people worldwide [1], while iron de-ficiency without anaemia is probably even more commonand often not diagnosed. In the global South, low iron in-take is the major cause of iron deficiency, which is oftenaggravated by chronic infection. However, iron deficiencywithout anaemia is very common in developed countrieswith good healthcare facilities, with a prevalence rangingfrom 15.6% to 22.7% in premenopausal women [2, 3]…

Figure 2:

Change of serum ferritin for each woman (n = 36) after 8weeks of low dose iron treatment (6 mg of elemental iron twicedaily).