MONDAY, Jan. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Anemic patients referred for colonoscopy who have a serum ferritin level of 50-100 ng/mL are just as likely to have a colonic neoplasia as those with lower ferritin levels, according to a report in the January issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology. The findings suggest that a serum ferritin level of 100 ng/mL should be the colonoscopy cutoff for anemic men; patients with higher levels are less likely to have colonic neoplasia.
Mandeep S. Sawhney, M.B.B.S., of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center in Minnesota, and colleagues evaluated colonic neoplasia in mostly male patients referred for colonoscopy for anemia evaluation. Patients were stratified into those with ferritin less than 50 ng/mL; ferritin 51 to 100 ng/mL; and ferritin greater than 100 ng/mL. The researchers compared the groups to each other and to asymptomatic non-anemic persons having screening colonoscopy.
Advanced colonic neoplasia was seen in 7.2 percent of patients with ferritin 51 to 100 ng/mL, similar to 7.9 percent in those with ferritin 50 ng/mL or lower. The incidence of advanced colonic neoplasia in those over 100 ng/mL was 1.7 percent, comparable to the 1.2 percent rate for the asymptomatic non-anemic group. After adjusting for age, patients with ferritin less than or equal to 50 ng/mL and 51 to 100 ng/mL had almost fivefold more advanced colonic neoplasia than the other groups.
"A ferritin cutoff of 100 ng/mL can be used to determine the need for colonoscopy in men with anemia," the authors conclude.
Abstract
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