Age, beta thalassaemia trait, and iron-deficient anaemia significantly affect reticulocyte indices in pre-school...

Area of Science:

• Hematology
• Pediatric Diagnostics
• Anemia Research

Background:

• Reticulocyte indices offer a cost-effective approach to diagnosing childhood anaemias.
• These parameters are gaining traction for their potential in pediatric hematological assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the distribution, age/gender variations, and iron metabolism correlations of reticulocyte indices.
• To assess the diagnostic performance of reticulocyte haemoglobin content (CHr), microcytic reticulocytes (micro_r), hypochromic reticulocytes (hypo_r), and low CHr (low_CHr).
• To differentiate between healthy children, iron deficiency (ID), iron deficiency anaemia (IDA), and beta-thalassaemia carriers (beta-thal).

Main Methods:

• Assessed reticulocyte indices (CHr, micro_r, hypo_r, low_CHr) in 386 pre-school children.
• Classified children into four groups: healthy, ID, IDA, and beta-thal carriers.
• Analyzed age and gender variations, iron metabolism correlations, and diagnostic performance using ROC analysis.

Main Results:

• Age influenced CHr and hypo_r in healthy children.
• CHr and low_CHr correlated with ferritin in the IDA group.
• micro_r and CHr demonstrated strong performance in differentiating IDA from beta-thal heterozygosity (AUC 0.76 and 0.74).
• CHr showed moderate performance (AUC 0.58) in identifying ID without anemia.

Conclusions:

• Reticulocyte indices are significantly affected by age, IDA, and beta-thalassaemia.
• CHr and micro_r show potential as screening tools for distinguishing between IDA and beta-thalassaemia heterozygosity.