Assessment of Iron Status in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Patients from India

Background Iron deficiency anemia is a therapeutic challenge in patients of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Methods The study was done on age related 63 CKD patients on hemodialysis assigned for recombinant erythropoietin and intra venous iron therapy. These were divided into group I with iron deficient anemia (n=30, sex ratio M F 237) and group II with non iron deficient anemia patients (n=33, sex ratio MF2310). Group III consists of 53 nonanemic, non CKD control individuals ( sex ratio M F 3716). Serum iron, total iron binding capacity (TIBC) were analysed on Randox IMOLA clinical chemistry analyser and transferrin saturation (TSAT) was a calculated parameter. Serum urea, creatinine, protein& albumin were analysed. Serum ferritin and blood hemoglobin (Hb) was estimated on Roche elecsys 2010 and Sysmex X-100 analyzer respectively. ANOVA was applied to calculate p value. Results Significantly low serum iron and transferrin saturation levels were found in group I as compared to group II and III patients (p=0.001). Serum ferritin was high in group I and II (p=0.001). Hemoglobin levels were low in these groups (p=0.001). Conclusions Low serum iron and transferrin saturation is a common finding in CKD patients due to their poor nutritional and chronic inflammatory state. The iron deficiency anemia is difficult to assess and becomes a challenge for the therapeutic intervention.