Anemia in IBD children. Evaluation of soluble transferrin receptor and soluble transferrin receptor - ferritin index in diagnosis and differentiating iron deficiency anemia from anemia of chronic diseases

Introduction: Prevalence of anemia in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is high and there is an important impact of anemia on the quality of life, morbidity and mortality in these patients. Iron deficiency anemia (IDA), anemia of chronic disease (ACD) and combination of both of these conditions represent the most frequent causes. It can be difficult to distinguish IDA in condition of inflammation. In fact, the common diagnostic tests (iron, ferritin and transferin saturation) are significantly influenced by inflammation and normal ferritin concentration does not exclude iron deficiency. Soluble transferin receptor (sTfR) and calculated sTfR/F index (sTfR/log ferritin) have a high diagnostic power in diagnosis of IDA in case of chronic inflammation. Aims: 1. To determine the prevalence of anemia and the prevalence of the types of anemia (IDA, ACD, ACD/ID) and 2. To compare common laboratory tests with sTfR and calculated sTfR/F index in diagnosis of iron deficiency in children at IBD onset. Methods: We examined 56 patients with newly diagnosed IBD. In all patients were examined red blood count, serum iron, total iron binding capacity, transferrin saturation, ferritin, sTfR and calculated sTfR/F index. C-reactive protein >5 mg/l was determined as a marker of inflammation. Anemia was defined by..