Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 May 17;13(5):1695.
doi: 10.3390/nu13051695.

Iron Deficiency Anemia in Celiac Disease

Valentina Talarico  1 , Laura Giancotti  2 , Giuseppe Antonio Mazza  3 , Roberto Miniero  1 , Marco Bertini  4
Affiliations
Review

Iron Deficiency Anemia in Celiac Disease

Valentina Talarico et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

The iron absorption process developsmainly in the proximal duodenum. This portion of the intestine is typically destroyed in celiac disease (CD), resulting in a reduction in absorption of iron and subsequent iron deficiency anemia (IDA). In fact, the most frequent extra-intestinal manifestation (EIM) of CD is IDA, with a prevalence between 12 and 82% (in relation with the various reports) in patients with new CD diagnosis. The primary treatment of CD is the gluten-free diet (GFD), which is associated with adequate management of IDA, if present. Iron replacement treatment historically has been based on oral products containing ferrous sulphate (FS). However, the absorption of FS is limited in patients with active CD and unpredictable in patients on a GFD. Furthermore, a poor tolerability of this kind of ferrous is particularly frequent in patients with CD or with other inflammatory bowel diseases. Normalization from anemic state typically occurs after at least 6 months of GFD, but the process can take up to 2 years for iron stores to replenish.

Keywords: Celiac disease; Iron deficiency Anemia; iron absorption.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, interpretation of data and in the writing of the manuscript.

References

    1. De Franceschi L., Iolascon A., Taherd A., Cappellini M.D. Clinical management of iron deficiency anemia in adults: Sistemic review on advances in diagnosis and treatment. Eur. J. Intern. Med. 2017;42:16–23. doi: 10.1016/j.ejim.2017.04.018. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lerner N.B., Sills R. Iron deficiency anemia. In: Kliegman R.M., Stanton B.F., Schor N.F., St. Gemelli G.V., Behrman R.E., editors. Nelson Text of Pediatrics. 20th ed. Elseviere; Amsterdam, The Netherlands: 2016. pp. 2322–2326.
    1. Camaschella C. Iron deficiency. Blood. 2019;133:30–39. doi: 10.1182/blood-2018-05-815944. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Levi M., Simonetti M., Marconi E., Brignoli O., Cancian M., Masotti A., Pegoraro V., Heiman F., Cricelli C., Lapi F. Gender differences in determinants of iron-deficiency anemia: A population-based study conducted in four European countries. Ann. Hematol. 2019;98:1573–1582. doi: 10.1007/s00277-019-03707-w. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Shahriari M., Honar N., Yousefi A., Javaherizadeh H. Association of potential celiac disease and refractory iron deficiency anemia in children and adolescents. Arq. Gastroenterol. 2018;55:78–81. doi: 10.1590/s0004-2803.201800000-15. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms