Women who are not anemic but who suffer from fatigue may benefit from iron supplementation. In this issue of Blood, Krayenbühl et al provide strong evidence that women complaining of fatigue who were not anemic but who had reduced or absent iron stores were symptomatically improved after receiving parenteral iron. Given the numbers of women who are iron deficient, the findings could find broad ...

BACKGROUND Blood donation has a marked influence on the body iron stores especially in female blood donors. Iron deficiency anaemia is an important limiting factor for the number of donations in female regular blood donors. AIM OF THE STUDY This study was conducted to evaluate the frequency of iron deficiency and relevant factors in frequent and first time female blood donors at Casablanca bl...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether there is an association between the total breastfeeding duration and iron stores, iron deficiency, and iron deficiency anemia in healthy urban children. METHODS A cross-sectional study of healthy children, aged 1 to 6 years, seen for primary health care between December 2008 and July 2011 was conducted through the TARGet Kids! practice-based research network. Un...

Divalent metal-ion transporter-1 (DMT1) is a widely expressed iron-preferring membrane-transport protein that serves a critical role in erythroid iron utilization. We have investigated its role in intestinal metal absorption by studying a mouse model lacking intestinal DMT1 (i.e., DMT1(int/int)). DMT1(int/int) mice exhibited a profound hypochromic-microcytic anemia, splenomegaly, and cardiomega...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Regular blood donation can lead to pre-clinical iron deficiency as well as iron deficiency anaemia. There is a need to increase the national voluntary blood donation for safe blood supply. However, there is paucity of data in the country regarding impact of regular voluntary blood donation on iron status of donors. Hence, iron stores were evaluated by serum ferritin esti...

PURPOSE To assess the validity of an MR method of evaluating tissue iron. METHODS The difference between the transverse relaxation rate (R2) measured with a high-field MR instrument and the R2 measured with a lower field instrument defines a measure termed the field-dependent R2 increase (FDRI). Previous in vivo and in vitro studies indicated that FDRI is a specific measure of tissue iron sto...

With reduced intake of meat and increased intake of phytate-containing legumes and whole grains, movement toward plant-based diets reduces dietary iron and zinc absorption. Although vegetarians have lower iron stores, adverse health effects of lower iron and zinc absorption have not been demonstrated with varied, plant-based diets consumed in developed countries. Improved assessment methods and...

Iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anemia are global health problems and common medical conditions seen in everyday clinical practice. Although the prevalence of iron-deficiency anemia has recently declined somewhat, iron deficiency continues to be the top-ranking cause of anemia worldwide, and iron-deficiency anemia has a substantial effect on the lives of young children and premenopausal wom...

Vegetarians who eat a varied and well balanced diet are not at any greater risk of iron deficiency anaemia than non-vegetarians. A diet rich in wholegrains, legumes, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, iron-fortified cereals and green leafy vegetables provides an adequate iron intake. Vitamin C and other organic acids enhance non-haem iron absorption, a process that is carefully regulated by the gut. Pe...

Iron is transported throughout the body as part of the transferrin protein and is stored as ferritin. The earliest stage of iron deficiency occurs when stores are depleted, characterized by a drop in serum ferritin levels and an increase in total iron binding capacity that refers to incomplete saturation of the transferrin molecule. Serum ferritin levels below 12 μg/l are associated with comple...