[Hematologic changes in female athletes]

Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anemia throughout the world. Physical performance, endurance capacity and resistance to fatigue in human are dependent upon many different factors. One of them is the oxygen carrying capacity of blood, mainly determined by hemoglobin concentration. We used questionnaires, physical examination and laboratory investigation to study the hematologic patterns in 18 volley-ball athletes. Their average intake of iron was 13.99 +/- 6.26 mg/day; the average serum iron concentration was 108.61 +/- 29.13 micrograms/dl; the hemoglobin concentration was 12.94 +/- 1.10 g/dl. Four athletes had less than 12 g of hemoglobin/dl and a serum iron concentration of 99.25 +/- 39.73 micrograms/dl. The maximal aerobic exercise capacity measured by exercise electrocardiography showed no important differences between the athletes with hemoglobin values higher or lower than 12 g/dl. These data support the idea that in São Paulo among young female athletes overt anemia is uncommon.