Is Every Other Day Iron Therapy An Alternative to Classical Treatment In Children? Comparison of Early Response to the Iron Treatment

Abstract

Objective: Iron deficiency anemia is an important public health problem, especially for infants and children. Oral iron supplements provide cheap, safe, and effective treatment. This study was designed to compare treatment of iron deficiency anemia with oral ferric citrate given at daily or alternate day dosages. Method: Infants and children aged between 3 month and 18-year diagnosed as iron-deficiency anemia were included in study. An open label trial was performed. One hundred and sixty-seven children with iron deficiency anemia were randomly divided into two groups. The conventional daily treatment was applied to Group 1 (n=96) whereas intermittent iron therapy was applied to age-, and gender-matched patients in Group 2 (n=71). Group 1 received daily doses of ferrous iron supplements, while Group 2 patients were administered these supplements at every 48 hours, that is 3-4 days a week. Hematological parameters were evaluated in both groups before treatment, after 10 days, and at the end of a month Results: When the hematological parameters were compared, there were no statistically differences between hemoglobin, red cell distribution width, mean corpuscular volume, serum iron, and ferritin levels of conventional and intermittent treatment groups. The only significant difference between the two groups was the transferrin saturation levels on the 10th day. When percentage changes in all values were compared, percentage change in hemoglobin values within the first 10 days and the interval between the 10th day to 1 month varied among groups. Conclusion: Oral iron supplements may also improve iron deficiency with alternative treatment regimens. The results of this study support intermittent iron therapy as a more practical, effective, safer, cheaper and manageable alternative therapy for the iron deficiency anemia.