Background: Iron deficiency anemia(IDA) is the most common deficiency anemia in Korea. Although there is tendency to underestimate the clinical significance of IDA due to improving economic status, we evaluate the clinical characteristics and therapeutic responseveness in patients with IDA.
Method : We analyzed 154 patients with IDA who were proven with CBC, serum iron, TIBC, transferrin saturation and ferritin from May 1990 to May 1994 in Chung-Ang Unversity Hospital and also we examed the prevalence of IDA in 343 students of female middle-school who belong to middle class socioeconomic status in Seoul in 1993.
Results: 1. Total 154 patients (male to female ratio 1:5.7) were diagnosed during this perid. Median age was 30 years old. The peak incidence was found at age of 13-20 years in
both gender. The 20 patients of athletes with IDA were found at age of 13-20 years old.
2. The mean hemoglobin levels at diagnosis were 8.5±1.7gm/dL in 154 patients with IDA(8.6±2.0gm/dL in male, 8.5±1.7gm/dL in female P=0.82) and 5.9±0.8gm/dL in 30
cases of severe IDA(Hgb below 7gm/dL), 7.7±1.8gm/dL in 63 cases of symptomatic patients and 9.0±1.5gm,/dL in 91 cases of asymptomatic patients(P=0.0001). There were a good inverse linear relation between Hgb and serum erythropoietin level at diagnosis of 54 cases with IDA(r=-0.074, P=0.0001).
3. We observed the underlying causes in 31 patients with IDA which were 11 cases of uterine myoma with hypermenorrhea, 5 cases of peptic ulcer, 5 cases of hemorrhoid,4 cases of gastrectomy state,4 cases of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, 1 case of stomach cancer and 1 case of intestinal tuberculosis.
4. Laboratory data of patients with IDA at diagnosis were 68.8±9.7fL in MCV, 19.5±5.0% in RDW, 1.0±0.5% in corrected-reticulocyte count, 31.6±21.l㎍/dL in serum iron, 417.3±74.3㎍/dL in TIBC, 8.2±7.5% in transferrin saturation and 6.4±7.7ng/㎖ in ferritin. And follow-up data after 13 weeks of therapy were 105.4±50.4㎍/dL in serum iron, 318.3±65.2fg/dL in TIBC, 35.6±25.8% in transferrin saturation and 35.9±23.9ng/㎖ in ferritin.
5. On the response of iron therapy, normalizations of Hgb, MCV and RDW were found at 4.9±2.9, 6.0±3.0 and 10.9±4.2 weeks after therapy.
6. Twenty-seven episodes of recurrence were found in 20 patients out of 92 patients with IDA who were followed after treatment at least 8 weeks. The mean duration of
recurrence was 6.1 months.
7. Ten case(3.4%) of IDA and 9 cases(2.6%) of iron deficient erythropoiesis were found in 343 students of female middle-school.
Conclusion: RDW may be useful in diagnosis of IDA and in deciding the time of confirming the serum ferritin as a parameter of adequate response after iron replacement therapy.

Keywords: IDA, MCV, RDW, Serum ferritin, Serum erythropoietin,