Anemia in inflammatory bowel diseases: the approaches to its diagnosis, treatment and prevention

Abstract

Anemia is a frequent systemic complication and extra-intestinal manifestation of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Despite significant progress in IBD treatment, late diagnosis and insufficient correction of concomitant anemia remain a problem in routine clinical practice. The review describes the main pathophysiological mechanisms of IBD-associated anemia, such as iron deficiency, chronic inflammation (anemia of chronic disease) and B9 and B12 deficiencies. The authors highlight the main diagnostic principles of these conditions, present the strategy for their differential diagnosis, describe the state-of-theart approaches to the correction of iron-deficient anemia in IBD, and delineate the role of oral and parenteral medications for replacement therapy. Optimal treatment goals and prevention methods of an iron-deficient condition are given. Special attention is focused on the principles on red cell mass transfusions in acute massive blood loss. The authors describe the main differentiating features of anemia of chronic disease and its treatment in IBD patients with various grades of the inflammation. The paper contains the indications and treatment regimens for B12 and foliate-deficient anemia with consideration of the IBD course. The authors of the article are members of the Working Group of the Russian Society on the study of IBD and believe that the literature analysis performed would allow for its use to issue the Russian clinical guidelines on the management of patients with anemia in ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

Keywords

• anemia diagnosis
• iron-deficient anemia
• anemia of chronic disease
• inflammatory bowel diseases
• ulcerative colitis
• crohn's disease
• treatment of anemia