PREVALENCE AND SPECTRUM OF IRON DEFICIENCY IN HEART FAILURE PATIENTS IN TAMIL NADU

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and pattern of iron deficiency (ID) in heart failure (HF)
patients with or without anemia. Methods: This study is conducted at a tertiary care hospital of
Tamil Nadu. It is a single-centre observational study. Patients included in the study were
admitted to hospital with clinical diagnosis of HF based on validated clinical criteria. ID was
diagnosed based on complete Iron profile, including serum ferritin, serum iron, transferrin
saturation (TSAT) and total iron binding capacity. Anaemia was defined as haemoglobin (Hb)
<13 g/dl for males and <12 g/dl for females, based on World Health Organization definition.
Absolute ID was taken as serum ferritin < 100 mg/L and functional ID was defined as normal
serum ferritin (100–300 mg/L) with low TSAT (<20%). Results: A total of 120 patients of HF
(62% males and 38% females) were studied. Most of the patients were of high-functional NYHA
class (mean NYHA 2.84 + 0.95). ID was present in 74% patients with 45.7% patients having
absolute and 28.3% patients having functional ID. Females were having significantly higher
prevalence of ID than males (90.2% vs 66.6%; p = 0.002). Nearly one-fourth of the patients were
having ID but without anaemia, signifying importance of workup of ID other than Hb.
Conclusion: Our study highlights the neglected burden of ID in HF patients in India. This study
suggests further large-scale studies to better characterize this easily treatable condition and
considering routine testing in future Indian guidelines.