CLINICAL FEATURES OF IRON
DEFICIENCY ANAEMIA
Symptoms
There may be no symptoms, especially in mild and moderate anemia.
Patient may complain of feelings of weakness, exhaustion and
lassitude, indigestion and loss of appetite. Palpitation, dyspnoea,
giddiness, oedema and, rarely, generalized anasarca and even
congestive cardiac failure can occur in severe cases.
Signs
There may be no signs especially in mild anemia. . There may be
pallor, glossitis and stomatitis. Patients may have edema due to
hypoproteinaemia. Soft systolic murmur can be heard in mitral area
due to hyper dynamic circulation.
Diagnosis
Haemoglobin estimation is the most practical method of diagnosis
as it is cost effective and can be easily performed by trained technician.
The Taliquist’s method of Hb estimation has simplicity and easy
applicability, but is not very -accurate. Sahil’s methods is reliable
and accurate when done by expert, and is the most communally used
method, although the cyanomethaemoglobin, method appears to be
the most accurate.
Peripheral blood film is another bed.-side indicator for diagnosis of
anemia which will also differentiate between iron deficiency anemia,
megaloblastic anemia and haemolytic anemia. In iron deficiency