149 - Replenishing the Missing Element: A Complete Review of Iron Deficiency Anemia

HelixTalk - Rosalind Franklin University's College of Pharmacy Podcast

Sean P. Kane, PharmD, BCPS

Health & Fitness, Medications, Rosalindfranklin, Rfums, Pharmacy, Pharmd, Pharmacist, Medicine, Drugs

5 • 644 Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2022

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, we will cover a complete overview of definition, diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of iron deficiency anemia (IDA).

Key Concepts

Iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most common type of nutritional anemia. The most common risk factors are insufficient dietary intake, malabsorption, and increased requirement states like pregnancy or blood loss.
Serum ferritin serves as the most confirmatory lab test for diagnosis of IDA. A low serum ferritin level usually indicates the presence of IDA. Other iron studies and CBC can be helpful in diagnosing IDA as well.
Generally oral iron therapy is a well-accessible, inexpensive, safe, and effective approach for IDA treatment. Almost all PO options are equally effective and safe. Gastrointestinal adverse effects are common and can sometimes limit further dosing.
Intravenous iron therapy is generally reserved for patients who are refractory or intolerant to PO treatment, have malabsorption of PO iron therapy, or have other health conditions such as chronic kidney disease, cancer, upcoming surgery, etc. Available IV options are equally effective and selection of an agent depends on insurance coverage, formulary inclusion, patient preference for test dose, frequency of dosing, etc.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Helix Talk, an educational podcast for healthcare students and providers covering real-life clinical pearls, professional pharmacy topics, and drug therapy discussions.
0:11.0	This podcast is provided by pharmacists and faculty members at Rosal Franklin University College of Pharmacy.
0:17.0	This podcast contains general information for educational purposes only. This is not professional
0:22.4	advice and should not be used in lieu of obtaining advice from a qualified health care provider.
0:27.2	And now on to the show. Welcome to Helix Talk episode 149. I'm your co-host Dr. Kame.
0:35.9	And I'm Dr. Patel. And the title of our episode today is replenishing the missing element, a complete review
0:42.9	of iron deficiency anemia.
0:45.3	In today's episode, we're going to cover overview, kind of a definition of what IDA,
0:50.8	iron deficiency anemia is, its diagnosis, what are all the lab values mean and why do we draw
0:57.3	them, what are the treatment options that are available, and how do we monitor a patient with
1:01.9	IDA?
1:03.0	And Dr. Mattel, this is actually an episode suggestion from a listener.
1:07.1	So for the listeners out there, if you have a topic that you want to hear more about, just go
1:12.4	to helixtalk.com and contact us and we'll add it to our list of potential topics moving forward.
1:17.1	But we love getting feedback from the listeners, and this is one of those episodes that was suggested.
1:22.8	All right.
1:23.3	I think it does make sense for us to get started with a small case.
1:26.9	So to set the stage, you know, TR is a 52-year-old patient.
1:31.6	This is very similar to a patient that I encountered in my clinic, past medical history
1:36.3	that's significant for osteoarthritis, history of multi-parity, and GERD, comes to the
1:42.9	PCP office, complains of fatigue, weakness, and shortness
1:46.2	of breath on exertion that's going on for about a month. She's not felt like this before.
	...

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