Complications
Many measures of muscular performance, such as total exercise time, maximal workload, heart rate, and serum lactate levels after exercise, are impaired by IDA and correct with iron replacement.[4]
Iron deficiency during the first two trimesters of pregnancy is associated with a twofold increase in preterm delivery and a threefold increase in delivering a low-birth-weight baby.[8] In contrast, prenatal iron supplementation results in increased infant birthweight and a lower incidence of small-for-gestational-age births.[187]
The infants born to iron-deficient women should undergo screening for IDA, and the mother's iron stores should be replenished. Care should be similar to that of other preterm and low-birth-weight infants.
High-output heart failure can be seen in patients with severe anemia (e.g., hemoglobin <5 g/dL). This can be reversed with iron replacement, and may not require specific treatment.
Caution should be used in giving transfusions in this setting because of the risk of volume overload.[98] Specific therapy for heart failure (e.g., beta-blockers) is not often required.
Patients who contract these infections from blood products should be treated according to standard of care. Physicians should have a high clinical suspicion of the possibility of these infections in patients who have required blood transfusions.
The risk of a transfusion-transmitted infectious disease from a standard unit of fresh frozen plasma is the same as for a unit of red cells.
Declining rates of post-transfusion infection in developed countries reflect the relative safety of the blood supply.[188][189]
Iron deficiency in childhood can be associated with developmental delay, which may not fully correct after correction of the iron deficiency.[190]
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