Prevalence of Anemia in Pediatric IBD Patients and Impact on Disease Severity: Results of the Pediatric IBD-Registry CEDATA-GPGE®

Jan de Laffolie; Martin W Laass; Dietmar Scholz; Klaus-Peter Zimmer; Stephan Buderus; CEDATA-GPGE Study Group

doi:10.1155/2017/8424628

Prevalence of Anemia in Pediatric IBD Patients and Impact on Disease Severity: Results of the Pediatric IBD-Registry CEDATA-GPGE®

Gastroenterol Res Pract. 2017:2017:8424628. doi: 10.1155/2017/8424628. Epub 2017 Dec 5.

Authors

Jan de Laffolie¹, Martin W Laass², Dietmar Scholz³, Klaus-Peter Zimmer¹, Stephan Buderus⁴; CEDATA-GPGE Study Group

Affiliations

¹ General Pediatrics & Neonatology, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany.
² Department of Pediatrics, Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
³ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
⁴ Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, GFO Kliniken Bonn, St. Marien-Hospital, Bonn, Germany.

Abstract

Aim: To determine the prevalence of anemia and its association with disease severity in children and adolescents with IBD.

Methods: CEDATA-GPGE is a registry for pediatric patients with IBD in Germany and Austria from 90 specialized centers. As markers of disease severity, analysis included patient self-assessment on a Likert scale (1-5; 1 = very good) and physicians' general assessment (0 = no activity to 4 = severe disease) and the disease indices. Anemia was defined as hemoglobin concentration below the 3rd percentile.

Results: Prevalence of anemia was 65.2% in CD and 60.2% in UC. Anemic CD and UC patients showed significantly worse self-assessment than patients without anemia (average ± standard deviation; CD: 3.0 ± 0.9 versus 2.5 ± 0.9, p < 0.0001; UC: 2.9 ± 0.9 versus 2.3 ± 0.9, p < 0.0001). Accordingly, physicians' general assessment (PGA) was significantly worse in anemic than in nonanemic patients in CD (p < 0.0001) and UC (p < 0.0001). PCDAI in anemic CD, p < 0.0001, and PUCAI in anemic UC patients, p < 0.0001, were significantly higher than in nonanemic patients. 40.0% of anemic CD and 47.8% of anemic UC patients received iron during follow-up.

Conclusion: Almost 2/3 of pediatric IBD patients are anemic. Patients' self-assessment and disease severity as determined by PGA and activity indices are worse in anemic patients. Contrastingly, only a minority received iron therapy.