The Effect of Small Doses of Iron on Desferrioxamine Chelation in Iron‐Deficiency Anaemia: Evidence for Ineffective Erythropoiesis

S ummary . We confirm that in many patients with iron‐deficiency anaemia, desferrioxamine chelates body iron in amounts similar to normal healthy men. A short course of iron therapy (200 mg. ferrous sulphate once a day for 7 days) reduces chelation in such cases to below the normal range, i.e. into the ‘expected’ iron deficiency range. We suggest that this effect of iron is due to a reduction of intramedullary haemolysis during the transformation of ineffective erythropoiesis to normal maturation, in the same way as vitamin B 12 reduces desferrioxamine iron chelation in pernicious anaemia. Sideropenia may be characterized by the differential ferrioxamine test as an F v value below 110μg./kg. when the haemoglobin concentration is not less than 12 g. per 100ml.