Open AccessThe anemia of the old and oldest-old patients hospitalized in Internal Medicine: a very high rate of anemia of chronic disease and multifactorial anemia
Author(s) -
Federico Silvestri,
R. Pozzo,
A. Barbi,
Antonella Labombarda,
Marco Zaramella,
I. Bramuzzo,
Elisa Mansutti,
Laura Perale,
Adolfo Rogato,
Francesca Zanini
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
italian journal of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.134
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1877-9352
pISSN - 1877-9344
DOI - 10.4081/itjm.2020.1282
Subject(s) - medicine , anemia , anemia of chronic disease , vitamin b12 , kidney disease , disease , pediatrics , iron deficiency
Anemia is highgly prevalent among elderly and few previous studies have focused on hospitalized medical patients aged ≥ 75 years. During a four-months period of this single center prospective cohort study, 508 patients were admitted and studied with a standardized set of blood tests. Anemia, defined as by WHO, was present in 277 (54.5%) and in the majority of cases was mild (71.8%), normocytic (82.8%), hypoproliferative (90.5%). Most frequent diagnosis was multifactorial anemia (47.7%); anemia of chronic disease was the most frequent single cause (28.5%) and the most frequent etiologic co-factor among multifactorial anemia. Iron deficiency was found in 22.7% of cases; vitamin B12 and folate deficiency were found in 7.5% and 26.1% respectively; chronic kidney disease in 16.2%; overt bleeding anemias in 4.8% and clonal hemopathies in 3.2%. Unexplained anemia was diagnosed only in 5.1% of cases. The finding of a very high frequency of anemia of chronic disease and multifactorial anemia has implications on both the diagnostic and therapeutic grounds.