TITLE:
Evaluation of Urinary Hepcidin as a Marker for the Early Diagnosis of Iron Deficiency Anemia in Children
AUTHORS:
Somaia Moussa, Asmaa Abd-Alwakeel Ibrahim, Nora Mohamed Ahmed
KEYWORDS:
Hepcidin, Iron, Anemia, Pediatrics
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Pediatrics,
Vol.10 No.2,
June
29,
2020
ABSTRACT: Background: Iron deficiency is an essential element, because
nearly all living organism urine hepcidin levels could potentially be used in
the determination of iron requirements and be an accurate indicator of
physiological IDA. Aim: The present study aimed to evaluate the role of
urinary hepcidin as an early diagnostic marker of iron deficiency anemia in
children. Methods: This study included 45 children. Their age ranged
from 6 to 16 years with hemoglobin levels ≤ 11.5 gm/dL and ferritin levels ≤ 20
ng/mL. The diagnostic performance of urinary hepcidin was estimated by
analyzing the receiver operating characteristic curve. Diagnostic cut-off point
with a high predictive value for iron deficiency was selected. Results: This study showed no statistically significant difference between the two
studied groups regarding to demographic data.
There were decrease in serum iron, ferritin, hemoglobin and Red blood cells
(RBCs) indices in patient than the control group. There was non-significant decrease
in urinary hepcidin in the study group compared to control group. The sensitivity
and specificity of urinary hepcidin in diagnoses of iron deficiency anemia was
57.8 and 62.2 respectively with positive predictive value (63.3) in our study.
There was positive correlation between urinary hepcidin and mean corpuscular
volume (MCV), (r = 0.221), (p = 0.036), with the cut of value Conclusion: We concluded that the decrease of urinary level of hepcidin was non-significant
in iron deficiency anemia compare to control group and needed further
researches.