Assessment of Anemia in Patients with Various Types of Inflammatory Bowel Disease under Medical Therapy

Background: Anemia is a usual systemic complication of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and can be presented in combination of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and anemia of chronic disease (ACD). In the present study, anemia in IBD was assessed. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 25 patients with Crohn’s disease (CD), 49 patients with ulcerative colitis (US), and 14 patients with undetermined colitis in years 2016-17. Hematological indices including ferritin, transferring saturation, hemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), vitamin B12, and folate were measured. Demographic information and region of intestinal involvement were compared as well. Findings: Based on gender distribution, anemia was not significantly different between Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, or undetermined colitis (P = 0.89). In addition, type of anemia including iron deficiency anemia, anemia of chronic disease, and macrocytic anemia was not different (P = 0.97) between the colitis types. Anemia was not in association with site of intestinal involvement (P = 0.89). Conclusion: Based on the findings of the current study, anemia is not statistically associated with type of bowel involvement, and site of bowel involvement. Further studies are recommended.