Assessment of Iron Status in Adolescents Presenting to the Emergency Department With Heavy Menstrual Bleeding

The objective of this study was to evaluate screening for iron deficiency in adolescents presenting to the emergency department for HMB. Methods This is a secondary analysis of a single-center, cross-sectional observational study using retrospective chart review. The study subjects are adolescents ages 11 to 19 years with International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification/International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification, codes for HMB who presented to the emergency department at a national tertiary care hospital from 2006 to 2018. Pregnant adolescents with HMB were excluded. Chart abstraction for demographic data, symptoms, laboratory tests, treatments, and outcomes was performed. The main outcome measure was the number of adolescents who had an iron evaluation in the emergency department and were discharged on oral iron. Results Of the 258 nonpregnant adolescents who sought care for HMB in the emergency department, 225 (87.2%) were evaluated with serum hemoglobin testing. Ninety-four (41.7%) of those tested were anemic. Only 23 of the 258 patients (8.9%) had iron studies (serum ferritin) performed; 18 of 23 (78.3%) had iron deficiency and 21 of 23 (92.3%) were anemic. Subjects presenting with fatigue, headache, or palpitations were more likely to have iron studies performed than those without these symptoms (all P
Source: Pediatric Emergency Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research