New Test Appears Better at Detecting Infant Iron Deficiency

New research suggests that an alternate blood test could allow doctors to detect many more cases of iron deficiency in infants, potentially preventing serious medical complications.

The alternate test detected about 83 percent of iron-deficiency cases, three times more than the current test, the study authors said.

It's too early in the research process for the test to be routinely used on babies, but the findings are promising and "definitely warrant further investigation," said study co-author Dr. Christina Ullrich, a fellow in pediatric hematology and oncology at Children's Hospital Boston.

The study findings appear in the Aug. 24-31 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

An estimated 10 percent of infants between 1 and 2 years old lack enough iron, a condition that can lead to anemia, in which too few red blood cells are produced and oxygen isn't distributed properly throughout the body. In the worst cases, low iron levels can cause neurological damage.

Several factors, including consumption of cow's milk during the first year of life and an inability to absorb iron properly, can result in an iron deficiency, the researchers said.

Doctors routinely test the iron levels of infants between the ages of 9 and 12 months as part of a larger group of blood tests, Ullrich said. The tests examine hemoglobin, a protein that carries iron in red blood cells.

The problem, Ullrich said, is that the cells tested live for 120 days. The tests aren't always precise enough to detect recent dips in iron levels, and it may take months for iron problems to appear, she said.

Enter the so-called CHr test, which Ullrich said has been used during the past decade to measure kidney function. The test examines hemoglobin in immature red blood cells, known as reticulocytes, that only remain in the bloodstream for 24 to 48 hours.

The study researchers gave both the traditional hemoglobin and the CHr tests to 200 healthy infants. Then the babies were retested using a much more precise test that isn't considered practical to use in routine screening.

The CHr test picked up iron deficiency 83 percent of the time, compared to 26 percent for the traditional test.

The findings suggest that CHr testing could be a valuable tool in detecting iron deficiency before it turns into anemia, which affects about 3 percent of infants, Ullrich said.

Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world. Infants and toddlers are particularly vulnerable due to their rapid growth, increased demands for iron, and variable dietary intake, the researches said.

In many cases, iron deficiency is easily treated with dietary supplements, Ulrich added.

More research is still needed, Ulrich said, but it appears the CHr test wouldn't significantly raise the price of routine blood tests known as "complete blood count," or CBC.

More information

To learn more about iron deficiency in infants, visit the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Wake-Up Drug Could Help the Sleep-Deprived

August 23, 2005 08:40:52 PM PST

Researchers at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., say an experimental drug called CX717 temporarily improved performance and reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in the brains of monkeys.

The drug works on a type of brain receptor involved in cell-to-cell communication, boosting the action of the neurotransmitter glutamate.

Reporting late Monday in the online edition of the Public Library of Science-Biology, the team first taught alert, well-rested monkeys to pick out specific images from a range of others flashed on a computer screen. Use of CX717 improved test scores of these fully alert monkeys to near-perfect, the researchers report.

They then had the same monkeys take the test again after being deprived of sleep for 30 to 36 hours -- the equivalent of humans going three days without rest.

Like humans, the primates' performance was noticeably sluggish due to lack of sleep. But use of CX717 brought that performance back to normal levels, the North Carolina team report.

"In addition to improving performance under normal conditions, the drug restored performance that was impaired after sleep loss," senior researcher Samuel Deadwyler said in a prepared statement.

PET scan imaging of the monkeys' brains "revealed that one basis for the drug's effects was to reverse changes in brain patterns induced by sleep deprivation," the researchers said.

CX717 appeared to increase activity in the brain's frontal cortex -- where higher mental processing occurs -- and centers governing short-term memory.

A drug that could reverse the effects of sleep deprivation would be regarded by some as a breakthrough in helping health professionals, shift workers, military personnel and others required to function at top level while coping with sleep deficits, the researchers said.

CX717 also showed positive results when it was tested in sleep-deprived humans, according to the drug's developer, Cortex Pharmaceuticals.

More information

The National Sleep Foundation has more about sleep and shift work.