Anemia in patients with ulcerative colitis in remission: A study from western India.

BACKGROUND

Anemia is common in patients with active ulcerative colitis. We aimed to study the anemia profile in patients with ulcerative colitis in clinical remission.

METHODS

Sixty-four patients with ulcerative colitis and with a clinical Mayo score less than 3 for at least 3 months were evaluated for anemia. Initial screening was done by hemogram and only patients with anemia were evaluated further for the cause of anemia. We also screened a control population for anemia. Patients with mild anemia were given oral iron, moderate anemia were given intravenous iron and severe anemia were given blood transfusion.

RESULTS

The mean hemoglobin in ulcerative colitis patients was 11.75 g/dL and in controls was 13.1 g/dL (p=0.011). The prevalence of anemia was 53.1% in the ulcerative colitis patients and 13.3% in the controls (p=<0.001). 58.8% had mild anemia, 29.4% had moderate anemia and 8.8% had severe anemia. Iron deficiency was the most common cause of anemia (70.5%) followed by anemia of chronic disease combined with iron deficiency in 23.5%. Ferritin levels did not correlate with hemoglobin levels. Oral iron increased the hemoglobin by 1.4 g/dL and intravenous iron by 2.2 g/dL at 1 month.

CONCLUSION

Anemia was seen in more than half of patients with ulcerative colitis in clinical remission, iron deficiency being the most common cause.