Anemia among Druze children in the Golan Heights

The prevalence and causes of anemia were studied in 294 Druze children aged 10 months to six years. The hemoglobin level was < 11.0 g/dl in 19%; none of these anemic children had folate deficiency. Iron deficiency, diagnosed on the basis of abnormal values for at least two independent laboratory parameters, was the cause of anemia in all but two cases. The Pearson correlation coefficient for hemoglobin was highest with mean corpuscular hemoglobin followed, in decreasing order of magnitude, by mean corpuscular volume, erythrocyte protoporphyrin, serum iron, transferrin saturation, total-iron-binding capacity, and serum ferritin. Mean corpuscular hemoglobin and transferrin saturation were abnormal in > 90% of anemic children, whereas serum ferritin and total-iron-binding capacity were abnormal in only 70%. In view of its limited sensitivity, serum ferritin appears to be a less useful diagnostic aid in iron-deficiency anemia than other, less expensive laboratory methods.