MENTZER INDEX AS A SCREENING TOOL FOR IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA IN 6-12 YEARS OLD CHILDREN
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Objective:
To validate Mentzer Index as a screening tool for Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA) in 6 to 12 years old children.
Methodology:
This cross-sectional validation study was conducted at the Department of Pediatrics, Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar and Department of Pediatrics, Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar from February 2021 to January 2022. Following set inclusion and exclusion criteria, a sample of 419 participants were enrolled using non-probability convenience sampling. A pre-designed performa was used to extract all the data, which was analyzed using SPSS v.25.0. Validation statistics were applied on the data extracted Mentzer Index, which is used as screening tool for IDA.
Results:
The mean age of the sample was of 7.28±1.07 years, in which 174 (41.5%) were males and 245 (58.5%) females. Hemoglobin was recorded as 10.11±1.09 g/dl, hematocrit as 31.82±2.56%, Serum Ferritin as 24.46±27.28 µg/l, Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV) as 65.09±8.31 fL and Red Blood Cell (RBC) as 5.17±0.705 x106 /µL. In validation statistics, sensitivity was 67.3%, specificity 93.8%, Positive Predictive Value (PPV) 80%, Negative Predictive Value (NPV) 88.6%, diagnostic accuracy as 86.63%. The area under curve was recorded as 0.805, which shows excellent discrimination between diseased and non-diseased.
Conclusion:
The study concludes that Mentzer Index has a better specificity, PPV, NPV, and diagnostic accuracy. Similarly a better area under the curve was recorded, which proves it to be an excellent discriminator.
Article Details
Work published in JPMI is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
References
Rathod DA, Kaur A, Patel V, Patel K, Kabrawala R, Patel V, Patel M, Shah P. Usefulness of cell counter-based parameters and formulas in detec¬tion of beta-thalassemia trait in areas of high prevalence. Am J Clin Pathol. 2007;128(4):585-9.
Vehapoglu A, Ozgurhan G, Demir AD, Uzuner S, Nursoy MA, Turkmen S, et al. Hematological indices for differen¬tial diagnosis of Beta thalassemia trait and iron deficiency anemia. Anemia. 2014;2014:576738.
Özdemir N. Iron deficiency anemia from diagnosis to treatment in children. Turk Pediatri Ars. 2015;50(1):11-9.
Jullien S. Screening of iron deficiency anaemia in early childhood. BMC Pedi¬atr. 2021 Sep 8;21(Suppl 1):337.
Nutritional Wing, Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Co¬ordination, Government of Pakistan. National Nutritional Survey 2018. Cited on: 3rd of March 2022. Available from: https://www.unicef.org/pakistan/me¬dia/1951/file/Final%20Key%20Find¬ings%20Report%202019.pdf.
Amer J. A Retrospective Study Using Mentzer Index for Prevalence of Iron Deficiency Anemia among Infants Visit¬ing Maternal Centers at the Age of One Year. Anemia. 2022;2022:7236317.
Tabassum S, Khakwani M, Fayyaz A, Taj N. Role of Mentzer index for differenti¬ating iron deficiency anemia and beta thalassemia trait in pregnant women. Pak J Med Sci. 2022;38(4):878-88.
Alam SLS, Purnamasari R, Bahar E, Rahadiyanto KY. Mentzer index as a screening tool for iron deficiency ane¬mia in 6-12-year-old children. Paediatr Indones 2014;54(5):294-8.
World Health Organization. Haemoglo¬bin concentrations for the diagnosis of anaemia and assessment of severity. Cited on: 3rd of March 2022. Available from: https://www.who.int/vmnis/indi-cators/haemoglobin.pdf.
World Health Organization. Iron Defi¬ciency Anaemia Assessment, Preven¬tion, and Control A guide for programme managers 2001. Cited on: 3rd of March 2022. Available from: https://www.who. int/nutrition/publications/en/ida_as¬sessment_prevention_control.pdf.
Ahmed HS, Hashem EA, Al-asheer OM, Mahmoud AA. The Diagnostic Perfor¬mance of Red Cell Distribution Width and Mentzer Index for Discrimination between Iron Deficiency Anemia and Beta Thalassemia Trait. Med J Cairo Univ 2018;86(7): 3979-88.
Ullah Z, Khattak AA, Ali SA, Hussain J, Noor B, Bano R, Jan Mahsud MA. Eval¬uation of five discriminating indexes to distinguish Beta-Thalassemia Trait from Iron Deficiency Anaemia. J Pak Med As¬soc. 2016;66(12):1627-31.
Jahangiri M, Rahim F, Malehi AS. Di¬agnostic performance of hematological discrimination indices to discriminate between beta thalassemia trait and iron deficiency anemia and using cluster analysis: Introducing two new indices tested in Iranian population. Sci Rep 2019;9:18610.