Iron deficiency in pseud. infections.../ Iron and Immunity...

[Guest guest]

I've often wondered if the ubiquitous recommendation to avoid iron

supplementation may

not always be a good thing. After all, iron delivers oxygen throughout the

body, it's

essential to proper immune function, but there's always the claim that it feeds

infections.

I've no doubt that it does, but it also gives us healthy red blood cells, and

helps fight

infections, doesn't it?

After reading a month or two back that pseudomonas loves iron, I just now found

this

study that suggests (help me here!) that perhaps it's safe to take. ??? It

doesn't say that it

HELPED the patients, but then again, it wasn't that type of study.

Hope some of you can help sort this out. Would love to hear your comments!

d.

Arch Fr Pediatr. 1989 May;46(5):331-4.Links

[iron deficiency and Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonization in cystic fibrosis]

[Article in French]

de Montalembert M, Fauchère JL, Bourdon R, Lenoir G, Rey J.

Département de Pédiatrie, Hôpital des Enfants-Malades à Paris.

The incidence of iron deficiency and its relationship with the concentration

or iron in

sputum and the number of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) colonies was studied in an

unselected group of 53 cystic fibrosis (CF) patients with an age range of 3

months to 21

years.

Parameters used to assess the iron status included serum iron, the % saturation

of

transferrin (n = 53). The number of subjects with depletion of iron stores was

estimated

by levels of ferritin (n = 50). The concentration of iron and of PA was measured

in a

subgroup (n = 24) and compared to a control group (n = 8) with pulmonary

infections of

varying etiology. A close correlation was found between serum iron and the %

saturation of

transferrin (r = 0.952; p less than 0.001).

Between 22.6 to 28.3% of patients were found to be iron deficient. An abnormally

low

ferritin (less than 12 ng/ml) was noted in 28% of cases but no correlation could

be

established between changes of serum iron and ferritin levels as a function of

the degree

of infection and/or of inflammation. In 62% of cases (n = 15) the concentration

of iron in

sputum was found to be within the range of control values (12-27 mumols/l).

In 38% of cases (n = 9), ferritin values were above 27 mumols/l.

No correlation was found between the concentration of iron and the number of PA

colonies

in sputum. We can therefore conclude the following: 1) iron deficiency is more

common in

CF than previously reported; 2) ferritin levels constitute a poor index of iron

deficiency; 3)

colonisation with PA is not associated with iron content of bronchial

secretions.