Today, I review, link to, and excerpt from The Curbsiders‘ #471 Iron Deficiency Anemia with Dr. Tom DeLoughery.*
Achi SS, DeLoughery T, Williams PN, Watto MF. “#471 Iron Deficiency Anemia”. The Curbsiders Internal Medicine Podcast. thecurbsiders.com/category/curbsiders-podcast 17 February 2025.
All that follows is from the above resource.
Conquer the art of managing patients with iron deficiency anemia. We are joined by the amazing Dr. Tom DeLoughery, @Bloodman (Oregon Health & Science University).
Claim CME for this episode at curbsiders.vcuhealth.org!
Show Segments
- Intro
- Rapid fire questions/Picks of the Week
- Case
- History and Physical
- Laboratory Findings
- Management of Iron Deficiency Anemia
- Diet
- Oral Supplementation
- Unexplained Iron Deficiency
- Case 2
- IV Iron Supplementation
- IV iron reactions
- Case 3
- Laboratory Follow Up Post Supplementation
- When to Refer to a Hematology/Oncology specialist?
- Outro
Iron Deficiency Anemia Pearls
- Iron deficiency anemia is a common disease process that is seen in almost 50-70% of premenopausal women!
- A detailed history, including menstrual history when appropriate, is crucial in evaluating iron deficiency anemia.
- When assessing for iron deficiency anemia, one should obtain a ferritin level.
- Oral iron should dosed once a day
- IV iron should be given especially in settings where the oral formulation is not working, not tolerated, or there is poor iron absorption
Iron Deficiency Anemia Show Notes
What is iron deficiency anemia?
Iron deficiency anemia is one of the most common types of anemia in the world. The peripheral smear typically shows microcytosis and hypochromasia (Warner 2023). Microcytic anemia is defined as small red blood cells that are usually hypochromic in nature and defined with a MCV (mean corpuscular volume) that is typically less than 80 femtoliters (fL) (Massey 1992). Typical symptoms of iron deficiency anemia include fatigue, weakness, pagophagia (chewing of ice) or dyspnea on exertion (Warner 2023, Hunt 2014).
History and Physical
Per Dr. DeLoughery, history taking is important when evaluating iron deficiency anemia. Questions should look for any bleeding source or blood in the stools, any history of anemia, or presence of family history of anemia. Another question to ask is if the patient has a history of diarrhea or weight loss, that could indicate malabsorption/celiac disease (Freeman 2015).*
*See also How To Take A Menstrual History To Screen For Iron Deficiency: “Discussing menstrual health in family medicine”
Posted on March 2, 2025 by Tom Wade MD
