study of iron metabolism in health and disease

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide. It can cause reduced work capacity in adults and impact motor and mental development in children and adolescents.Iron deficiency results when iron demand by the body is not met by iron absorption from the diet. Thus, patients with IDA presenting in primary care centres may have inadequate dietary intake, hampered absorption, or physiological losses in a woman of reproductive age. It also could be a sign of blood loss, known or occult. IDA is never an end diagnosis; the work-up is not complete until the reason for IDA is known.The anemia of chronic disease (ACD) is the second most prevalent cause of anemia, after iron deficiency. The anemia of chronic disease is generally a normochromic or slightly microcytic anemia, which can be readily diagnosed by laboratory studies of iron status. Patients with the anemia of chronic disease are clinically characterized by reduced plasma iron concentrations and transferrin saturation, while iron stores, as reflected by plasma ferritin levels, are normal or even increased.A variety of mechanisms have been identified that contribute to the pathogenesis of the anemia of chronic disease including inhibition of proliferation and differentiation of erythroid progenitor cells, limited iron availability to them due to diversion of iron traffic into reticuloendothelial system. In addition, there is reduced responsiveness to erythropoietin by erythroid progenitor cells.