Iron Deficiency Anemia in Children with Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome

Abstract

Anemia is one of the many complications seen in patients with persistent nephrotic syndrome and may occur as a result of excessive urinary losses of iron, transferrin, erythropoietin, transcobalamin and/or metals.Aim of the study: search for iron deficiency in children with nephrotic syndrome.Patient and method: This cross-sectional study included two groups of patients, 40 patients with steroid sensitive and resistant nephrotic syndrome, aged 2-12 year of age, of either sex, who attended Child Central Teaching hospital during the period from June 2018 to April 2019. A thorough full history and clinical examination was done and all patients have been sent for investigation to search for anemia.Results: 35% of patients with steroid resistant nephrotic syndrome were complaining from anemia, while none of patients with steroid responsive had anemia of any cause.There was a significant difference (P= 0.001) between study group in Blood Film results as all patients of responsive group showed normal blood film compared to only seventy-five percent in resistant group.Conclusion: iron deficiency anemia has been observed to occur in higher frequency in steroid resistant nephrotic syndrome due to difficulty in controlling proteinuria and the continuing iron losses.