Lesson of the week: Prevalence of concomitant disease in patients with iron deficiency anaemia

摘要

How to investigate patients presenting with iron deficiency anaemia is a matter of debate. Undoubtedly one of the commonest lethal, but potentially curable, causes is colonic carcinoma, the second most common cancer in both men and women in the West Despite this, the colon may not be investigated if an acceptable cause for the anaemia has been found on upper gastrointestinal investigations. Clinically important concomitant disease, such as benign upper gastrointestinal disease associated with colonic cancer, has been reported in up to 7% of anaemic patients, yet combined upper and lower gastrointestinal investigations are carried out in only a minority of cases with iron deficiency anaemia.