[Oral iron therapy. Bioavailability and therapeutic effectiveness of ferrous iron in effervescent tablets in posthemorrhagic iron deficiency anemia].

Bio-availability and therapeutic efficacy of two oral ferrous preparations in the form of effervescent tablets (A and A*) were compared. In a randomly controlled trial, postabsorption rise of serum iron was compared intraindividually after oral intake of the effervescent tablets and of an optimally bio-available ferrous ascorbate standard solution (80.5 mg). Afterwards the therapeutic efficacy of both preparations (161 mg daily) was compared with a proprietary iron preparation (B: 150 mg daily) for three months. The trial was conducted on 24 male subjects (aged 20-38 years) who underwent weekly phlebotomies of 500 ml until exhaustion of body iron reserves and development of a mild iron-deficiency anaemia (standard phlebotomy protocol). Relative bioavailability, related to the standard iron solution, was 89% and 104%, respectively, for tablets A and A*. The rise in haemoglobin and ferritin during the three-months treatment was relatively the same for all three preparations: the average daily haemoglobin rise (means +/- SD) was 1.4 +/- 0.5 g/l (A), 1.5 +/- 0.4 g/l (A*) and 1.2 +/- 0.5 g/l (B), respectively, the differences not being statistically significant.