The Effect of Small Doses of Iron on Desferrioxamine Chelation in Iron‐Deficiency Anaemia: Evidence for Ineffective Erythropoiesis

Summary. We confirm that in many patients with iron‐deficiency anaemia, desferrioxamine chelates body iron in amounts similar to normal healthy men. A short course of iron therapy (200 mg. ferrous sulphate once a day for 7 days) reduces chelation in such cases to below the normal range, i.e. into the ‘expected’ iron deficiency range. We suggest that this effect of iron is due to a reduction of intramedullary haemolysis during the transformation of ineffective erythropoiesis to normal maturation, in the same way as vitamin B12 reduces desferrioxamine iron chelation in pernicious anaemia. Sideropenia may be characterized by the differential ferrioxamine test as an Fv value below 110μg./kg. when the haemoglobin concentration is not less than 12 g. per 100ml.