Iron Absorption Disturbances in Patients with Enteropathy: Interim Analysis of a Single Centre Study

There are about 2 billion people in the world who suffer from anaemia, mostly iron deficiency anaemia (IDA), by WHO data. Iron deficiency without anaemia is three times more common than IDA. In such patients, the condition of the small intestine should be evaluated, and malabsorption excluded. The aim of the study was to evaluate potential correlation between different types of enteropathy and iron absorption disturbances. The study was performed at the Latvian Maritime Medical Center “Gastroklinika” between the years 2014 and 2018. Iron absorption tests with 50 mg of oral iron gluconate were performed for each patient. Patients had filled in a FACIT questionnaire and had underwent video capsule endoscopy (VCE). A total of 48 patients were enrolled for analysis — 41 (85.4%) female and 7 (14.6%) male. Enteropathy was diagnosed in 35 cases: erosive — 17, erythematous — 12 and congestive — 6. By the time of VCE, 24 patients were suffering from anaemia. A total of 33 (68.7%) patients had problems with iron absorption, of whom 8 had no signs of enteropathy and 25 were diagnosed with enteropathy during VCE. IDA did not show a statistically significant correlation with enteropathy. However, the obtained results suggest that this should be studied further in association with small intestine malabsorption, to determine the precise role of enteropathy in IDA patients.