Anemia and lab work.....when to worry?

[Daltonsmom]

I am new to the Forum, just found you all a few days ago :ybatty:

My son has had a rough fall and winter, but seems to be feeling better lately, thank goodness ! He has had remicade infusions every 8 weeks, and now moved to every 6 weeks due to colonoscopy results in February that showed active inflammation.

My question is regarding his labwork. The GI said we need to add Iron to his mix of meds, and I was wondering who can help me regarding which labs are important to watch for---regarding anemia.

I have access to print outs from his last 3 lab draws, and they have all been steadily dropping. I am looking at WBC, RBC, Hemoglobin, Hematocrit, MCV and MCH levels.

Which are the most important to focus on? His sed rate, and CRP are actually good ( for the first time in 5 years ) so very thankful for that

Any advice on lab results would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

 

[Farmwife]

Hi and welcome.
My girl is five and the reason I'm here as well.
I'm going to tag in.......
Catherine
mlp
Tesscorm
Clash
DustyKat

Sorry I don't know much about IRON levels. My girl has low feritin but her docs don't seem concerned.


Welcome aboard and glad you found us.

 

[Clash]

Tesscorm just posted a great link in the Parents research thread about iron levels. I am on my mobile so I can't post it here.

Generally if your child has low HGB levels they run an iron study to check ferritin, transferritin etc. This will indicate if there is iron deficiency anemia, but there are other types of anemia as well. There is anemia of chronic disease as well as others.

We also have an entry in our wiki forum that gives info about anemia and the different types. Using the forum search bar you can enter the key word anemia and the first link should be to our wiki.

But to answer your question the docs are probably looking at his HGB, RBC and HCT and the doc should request iron studies. The other low values can play a role as well but not sure how it correlates as that is above my head.

My son has normal HGB levels but his ferritin is a bit on the low normal side so he is taking an iron supplement. He hasn't done well with iron supplements in the past as they tend to cause constipation so this round we are doing polysaccharide iron brand name niferex.

 

[Farmwife]

Here's the link about what Tess posted.:hug:

http://www.australianprescriber.com/magazine/20/3/74/6

 

[Tesscorm]

The link/article explains it much better than I can. HOpe it helps.

 

[DustyKat]

If your lad has Crohn’s affecting his terminal ileum then ensure you also have his B12 and Folate (B9) tested at regular intervals as well. Deficiencies in either one of these vitamins produces an anaemia different to that produced by the iron deficiency pathway.

Dusty. xxx

 

[Daltonsmom]

Thanks! He does have disease in his terminal ileum, so I will ask about those tests when he sees the GI in a few weeks.


Thanks for the great information