Abstract

OBJECTIVE

Iron deficiency is a leading cause of microcytic anemia for children. On the other hand, B12 deficiency, which is more rare event than iron deficiency, coexists with macrocytic anemia. The purpose of this study is two-fold: first, to measure the frequency of B12 deficiency in microcytic anemia with iron deficiency anemia, second to investigate the role of complete blood count paramaters in differentiating combined nutritional anemia (iron and B12 deficiency) from pure iron deficiency.

METHODS

The study was carried out with 80 patients who were diagnosed as nutritional anemia without any chronic disease at hematology policlinics of Diyarbakir Children and Dicle University Hospitals. Serum ferritin, B12 vitamin and folic acid levels were measured by Unicel DxI 800 device via chemiluminescence enzyme immunometric method. Complete blood count parameters were measured by ABX Pentra DX 120 device.

RESULTS

Seventy-three of patients has microcytic anemia index. Fourty-one of those had pure iron deficiency anemia. Thirty-two of seventy-three patients (% 43) diagnosed as having B12 deficiency in addition to iron deficiency. No significant difference was observed in the complete blood count parameters of patients with pure iron deficiency and combined nutritional anemia (p>0.05).

CONCLUSION

As it can also be seen from our study, almost half of the patients (43%) with microcytic anemia were associated with B12 deficiency. Therefore, we conclude that it may be useful to measure serum B12 levels besides iron levels in those patients with microcytic anemia in order to treat B12 deficiency via its early diagnosis.