Assessment of Iron Status in Sickle Cell Patients and its relationship with the Frequency of Blood Transfusion

Background Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is common in Indian subcontinent. Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) patients can have iron deficiency or transfusional iron overload. It is important to know the pattern of iron parameters in different clinical states of SCD to decide whether these patients require iron supplementation, blood transfusion or chelation therapy. Materials& Methods The study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, Pt. J. N. M. Medical College and DR. B. R. A. M. Hospital, Raipur, C. G. from January 2015 to august 2016 among patients who attended the OPD and admitted in Paediatrics and Medicine Ward. Serum Iron was measured by Ferrozine/Magnesium Carbonate method using fully automated biochemistry I-Lab 650i autoanalyser. Serum Ferritin was measured by ELISA test kit. Results Out of 100 patients, 58 cases were of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and 42 cases were of Sickle Cell Trait (SCT), so the ratio of SCD and SCT patients was 1.381. Male Female ratio was 1.041. Maximum number of cases (67 %) belongs to age group between 5-20 years. Out of 100 patients, 40 % had increased serum ferritin, 50 % had normal and 10 % had decreased level while serum iron level was increased in 23 % patients, normal in 38 % patients and decreased in 39 % patients. Serum iron and serum ferritin level was found normal in 52 % patients of Sickle Cell Disease who had transfused less than 5 units of blood. Serum ferritin and serum iron level was increased as numbers of blood transfusions were increased. Conclusion Sickle Cell Trait patients were in iron deficiency state while Sickle Cell Disease patients were in iron overload state. Because of multiple blood transfusions in SCD patients that lead to progressively increase in serum ferritin and serum iron level. This iron overload should be prevented by exchange transfusion rather than conventional transfusion. Thus the correlation between these (serum ferritin, serum iron) parameters can help in iron overload and iron deficiency states in the patients of Sickle Cell Disease and Sickle Cell Trait. Sickle Cell Patients, Serum Iron, Serum Ferritin, Iron Overload, Iron Deficiency