[Reevaluation of administration dosage in parenteral iron therapy]

Concerning parenteral iron therapy in iron deficiency anemia, Nakao's formula has been used to calculate the total amount of iron to be given, based on 80 ml/kg of circulating blood volume and 17 mg/kg of storage iron in healthy Japanese. Recent studies using radionuclide and radioimmunoassay revealed 65 ml/kg as the circulating blood volume and 500 mg as storage iron. From these data, the total amount of iron can be calculated from the following formula; 3.4 (16-X) x 65 x body weigh/100 + 500 mg (B) where 3.4 is the conversion factor for grams of hemoglobin to mg iron and X is the hemoglobin value before treatment. Parenteral iron therapy was performed in 15 patients with iron deficiency anemia using a total dose of iron calculated by the above the formula (B). The results were effective, and no decrease of hemoglobin was seen except in cases with continuous bleeding. In such cases, iron doses depending upon the amount of continuous bleeding should be added to the total amounts obtained from formula (B).