ABSTRACT
Background: obesity and iron deficiency anemia are major health problems that are increasing in Egypt especially in females
Aim of work: this study aimed to evaluate the iron status in obese Egyptian females in comparison to normal weight females
Patients and Methods: forty four obese adult female patients and 44 normal weight healthy females as control group were included in this study. They were all tested for iron profile and CRP using semi quantitative rapid latex agglutination test
Results: the patient group in this study showed a significant lower serum Fe and TSI than the control group, while ferritin was higher in patients than the control group. The comparison between the three groups of obesity showed that the grade III patients had the lowest median value in serum iron and the highest median value in TIBC and ferritin, however no statistical significant differences were detected between the three groups of patients [P>0.05]. Our results showed that 70.4%] of patients had positive CRP with positive correlation between CRP and BMI
Conclusion and Recommendations: obesity is a low inflammatory disease which affects iron profile and increases CRP. Further, study on larger number of cases is recommended to analyze the exact mechanism of iron deficiency anemia in obese female patients