Prevalence of Significant Endoscopic and Histopathologic Findings in Patients Presenting with Unexplained Iron Deficiency Anemia

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mansoura Specialized Medical Hospital, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.

2 Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt

Abstract

Background: In practice, however, not all anaemic patients undergo appropriate diagnostic tests for the detection of iron deficiency anaemia (IDA), and a significant portion of patients with IDA do not receive endoscopic evaluations. Accordingly, this study aimed to detect the prevalence of significant endoscopic (upper and lower endoscopy) and pathological findings in patients presenting with unexplained iron deficiency anaemia.
Methods: One hundred twenty-four patients with confirmed IDA with no obvious cause who visited the Internal Medicine Clinic were randomly selected. Patients with active bleeding, pregnant or lactating females, or those with contraindications to sedation were excluded. Upper and lower endoscopy were held in the endoscopy unit of Specialized Medical Hospital and tissue biopsy from significant endoscopic findings was sent for histopathological examination.
Results Our study showed that 86.3% of participants displayed positive findings. main causes of iron deficiency anemia in the included 124 patients based on the upper and lower GIT endoscopic and pathological findings were gastritis and duodenitis (17.7%) followed by chronic nonspecific colitis (11.3%) followed by infectious colitis and hemorrhoids (10.5%) then GI malignancies (gastric and colonic) (9.6%) then Ulcerative colitis (8.9%) and Celiac disease (6.5%).
Conclusion: Upper and lower endoscopy is an important procedure for the evaluation of patients with unexplained IDA and for the early detection of silent gastrointestinal malignancies.

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