Reticulocyte Hemoglobin Equivalent (Ret-He) as a Marker of Iron Deficiency Anemia in Acutely Ill Hospitalized Children.
Ret-He cutoff of 27.7 pg outperformed ferritin for detecting iron deficiency anemia.
Reticulocyte Hemoglobin Equivalent (Ret-He) as a Marker of Iron Deficiency Anemia in Acutely Ill Hospitalized Children.
To evaluate diagnostic utility of reticulocyte hemoglobin equivalent (Ret-He) in identifying iron deficiency anemia (iron deficiency anemia) in acutely ill hospitalized children in comparison to serum ferritin.
After excluding chronic inflammatory and anemic conditions unrelated to iron deficiency (iron deficiency), patients were categorized as (1) iron deficiency anemia: low hemoglobin+ microcytosis+ red-cell-distribution-width (RDW) index >220, (2) Non-anemia-iron-deficiency (non-anemia-iron-deficiency): normal haemoglobin+ microcytosis+ RDW index >220 and (3) Normal-group: normal hemoglobin+ normocytosis.
Ret-He correctly flagged most children who truly had iron deficiency anemia
Iron deficiency anemia group had significantly lower Ret-He levels (p <0.001).
Ferritin levels showed no significant difference (p = 0.062).
For non-anemia-iron-deficiency detection, Ret-He cut-off of 29.1 pg showed sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of 71.4%, 57.1%, 52.6%, 75.0% and 62.9%, while ferritin at cut-off of 153 ng/ml showed values of 57.1%, 61.9%, 50.0%, 68.4%, and 60.0% respectively.
Ret-He demonstrated superior diagnostic utility compared to serum ferritin for iron deficiency anemia in acutely ill hospitalized children.
Optimal cut-off for serum ferritin for iron deficiency anemia was significantly higher than WHO reference standard.