Iron deficiency in Crohn's disease : iron supplementation or disease control?

Abstract

The authors read with interest the paper by Lugg S et al.: “Iron treatment and inflammatory bowel disease: What happens in real practice? In this article, the authors describe how treatment with oral iron frequently fails to control anaemia, probably secondary to the side effects of oral iron. It is however important to highlight that iron deficiency in inflammatory bowel disease is frequently related to disease activity and severity, and management of the underlying inflammation is required to control the anaemia. We assessed which phenotypic characteristics of Crohn's disease are associated with iron deficiency in 171 adult Crohn's disease patients. Haemoglobin, C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum ferritin levels taken within 2 weeks of a colonoscopy were analysed. Serum ferritin b30 μg/L was taken to represent iron deficiency in patients with endoscopic and histologically quiescent disease while ferritin b100 μg/L was considered to represent iron deficiency in the presence of active disease, as recommended by international guidelines.