Iron deficiency in health and disease.

Iron deficiency is a common problem in otherwise healthy children and in children with systemic disease. We have reviewed the pathophysiology, laboratory diagnosis, and systemic effects of iron deficiency. We have emphasized that routine screening procedures do not efficiently predict those otherwise healthy children who will demonstrate a therapeutic response to iron. Furthermore, in patients with certain systemic diseases the diagnosis of iron deficiency is complicated by the inflammatory process and the response to a therapeutic trial of oral iron is often blunted. Since the potential adverse effects of iron deficiency may be extensive, a therapeutic trial of iron is indicated to establish the diagnosis of iron deficiency if the index of suspicion is high and laboratory results are equivocal.