Immature Reticulocyte Fraction after Iron Therapy for Iron Deficiency Anemia / 대한혈액학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Automated counting of reticulocyte introduced new reticulocyte parameters such as immature reticulocyte fraction (IRF). IRF is thought to be more sensitive than absolute or corrected reticulocyte count for detecting recovery of bone marrow function. The aim of this study is to assess the role of IRF for predicting the response of therapy after treatment of iron deficiency anemia. METHODS: Patients with previously untreated iron deficiency anemia (blood hemoglobin 0.15) and 10 of them (91%) had their hemoglobin level increased by more than 3g/dL. This difference was significant (P=0.024). However, the 8th day IRF was not correlated with the change of hemoglobin as strongly as the 8th day corrected reticulocyte count (Pearson coefficient 0.420 vs 0.693). CONCLUSION: For the patients with iron deficiency anemia, the 8th day of treatment IRF correlates with the response of iron treatment, but the 8th day of treatment corrected reticulocyte count has a stronger correlation.