Department of Pediatrics, Hospital of Halland, Halmstad, Sweden.
Department of Clinical Sciences, Pediatrics, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
Pediatr Res. 2018 Nov;84(5):657-661. doi: 10.1038/s41390-018-0046-4. Epub 2018 Aug 23.
Iron deficiency anemia in childhood is a serious public health problem worldwide. Reticulocyte hemoglobin content (Ret-He) is a novel biomarker of iron deficiency adopted for adults but there is a lack of reference intervals for Ret-He in infants. The aim of this study was to provide data from healthy infants.
Swedish infants (n = 456), born at term after normal pregnancies were included. Ret-He was measured at birth (umbilical cord sample), 48-72 h, 4 months, and 12 months. Reference intervals were calculated as ±2 standard deviations from the mean of Ret-He.
Reference intervals for newborn Ret-He were 27.4 to 36.0 pg/L (N = 376) in the cord sample, 28.1-37.7 pg/L (N = 253) at 48-72 h, 25.6-33.4 pg/L (N = 341) at four months and 24.9-34.1 pg/L (N = 288) at 12 months. Ret-He was significantly lower among iron-deficient infants, at 4 months mean difference (95% CI) -4.2 pg/L (-6.1 to -2.4) and at 12 months mean difference (95% CI) -3.4 pg/L (-5.0 to -1.8).
This longitudinal study presents Ret-He reference intervals based on non-anemic and non-iron-deficient infants and constitutes a step towards standardizing Ret-He as a pre-anemia biomarker of iron deficiency in children.
儿童缺铁性贫血是全球范围内一个严重的公共卫生问题。网织红细胞血红蛋白含量（Ret-He）是一种用于成人缺铁性贫血的新型生物标志物，但婴儿的 Ret-He 参考区间尚未确定。本研究旨在提供健康婴儿的数据。
纳入足月出生、正常妊娠的瑞典婴儿（n=456）。在出生时（脐带血样本）、48-72 小时、4 个月和 12 个月时测量 Ret-He。参考区间是从 Ret-He 的平均值上下 2 个标准差计算得出的。
脐带血样本中新生儿 Ret-He 的参考区间为 27.4-36.0pg/L（n=376），48-72 小时时为 28.1-37.7pg/L（n=253），4 个月时为 25.6-33.4pg/L（n=341），12 个月时为 24.9-34.1pg/L（n=288）。缺铁性婴儿的 Ret-He 明显较低，4 个月时平均差异（95%CI）为-4.2pg/L（-6.1 至-2.4），12 个月时平均差异（95%CI）为-3.4pg/L（-5.0 至-1.8）。
本纵向研究提供了基于非贫血和非缺铁婴儿的 Ret-He 参考区间，这是将 Ret-He 标准化为儿童缺铁性贫血前的生物标志物的重要一步。
