Mahlknecht Ulrich, Kaiser Simone
Department of Immunotherapy and Gene Therapy, Saarland University Medical Center, Homburg/Saar; ; Department of Hematology/Oncology, University of Heidelberg Medical Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
Exp Ther Med. 2010 Nov;1(6):1019-1025. doi: 10.3892/etm.2010.150. Epub 2010 Sep 17.
Anaemia has become a common concern in geriatric health. Since its prevalence varies quite significantly among different groups depending on factors such as ethnicity, lifestyle or fitness, the appropriateness of the current WHO definition of anaemia in the elderly may be questioned. We evaluated peripheral blood parameters from 1,724 individuals (908 women aged 18-101 years and 816 men aged 18-96 years), who were treated at the University of Heidelberg Medical Center with no known haematological history. Patients with a known malignant haematological or oncological disease or with chronic infection or inflammation were excluded. Patients with disorders affecting the kidneys, thyroid or stomach, as well as patients with a bleeding history, haemolysis or who had been previously diagnosed with anaemia were excluded from the study. Average haemoglobin levels for men beyond the age of 70 and for women beyond the age of 80 were found to fulfill the WHO criteria for the diagnosis of anaemia. While in our cohort ∼20% of men and women between 60-69 years of age were by definition anaemic, these numbers steadily increased to 63% in females and 76% in males beyond the age of 90. Based on the results of our study and in accordance with the literature on this topic, we suggest age-adjusted criteria for the diagnosis of anaemia in the elderly in conjunction with a geriatric assessment.
贫血已成为老年健康领域普遍关注的问题。由于其患病率在不同群体中因种族、生活方式或健康状况等因素而有很大差异，因此世界卫生组织（WHO）目前对老年人贫血的定义是否恰当可能受到质疑。我们评估了1724名个体（908名年龄在18至101岁的女性和816名年龄在18至96岁的男性）的外周血参数，这些个体在海德堡大学医学中心接受治疗，且无已知血液病史。已知患有恶性血液或肿瘤疾病、慢性感染或炎症的患者被排除在外。患有影响肾脏、甲状腺或胃部疾病的患者，以及有出血史、溶血或先前被诊断为贫血的患者也被排除在研究之外。研究发现，70岁以上男性和80岁以上女性的平均血红蛋白水平符合WHO的贫血诊断标准。在我们的队列中，60至69岁的男性和女性中约20%被定义为贫血，而在90岁以上的人群中，这一比例在女性中稳步上升至63%，在男性中升至76%。基于我们的研究结果并结合该主题的文献，我们建议结合老年评估制定年龄调整后的老年人贫血诊断标准。
