ABSTRACT
Iron constitutes the most prevalent nutritional deficiency worldwide. In Chile, anaemia epidemiological data is scarce, evaluating mainly children and women. Our objective was to determine prevalence of anaemia in an inpatient elderly population (≥60 years) and assess the usefulness of sTfR levels analyzed by other authors as a good predictor in the differential diagnosis of iron deficiency anaemia and anaemia of chronic disease. Method. We studied medical patients admitted at Hospital of Valdivia (HV), Chile, in a 2month period. World Health Organization criteria were used for anaemia. Results. 391 patients were hospitalized, average age 62.5 years, 247 elderly and 99 of which had anaemia. Anaemia was normocytic in 88.8%, and we observed: low serum iron in 46.3%, low ferritin 10.1%, high TIBC 2%, low % transferrin saturation (Tsat) 40%, and high sTfR 25%. Conclusions. As a first figure known in Chile, the prevalence of anaemia in the elderly inpatient was 40.1%. Our findings encourage us to promote the implementation of sTfR determination in the clinical setting to analyze the state of erythropoiesis in patients with chronic diseases wich commonly occurs in elderly.
