الفهرس 
Effect of Iron Deficiency Anemia on Children Cognition and BehaviorOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide. It can cause reduced work capacity in adults and impact motor and mental development in children and adolescents. There is some evidence that iron deficiency without anemia affects cognition in adolescent girls and causes fatigue in adult women. IDA may affect visual and auditory functioning and is weakly associated with poor cognitive development in children.
BDNF acts on certain neurons of the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system, helping to support the survival of existing neurons and encourage the growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses.
The aim of this study was to estimate the level of BDNF in IDA children and correlate it with their laboratory and growth parameters as well as their cognitive function.
This study was conducted on 27 children presented to out patient’s clinic in Louxor International Hospital with clinical manifestations of IDA, in addition to fourteen clinically healthy age and sex matched children who served as controls.
All children of the study were subjected to full history taking with special emphasis on symptoms of iron deficiency anemia, dietetic history and socioeconomic evaluation, through clinical examination to detect signs of IDA and to exclude any neurological diseases or chronic infections and laboratory investigations including CBC picture, serum ferritin as well as serum level of BDNF. Finally cognitive assessment was performed for all children using Wechsler intelligence test for children.
The current work revealed that pallor and anorexia were the commonest manifestations among IDA patients (100%), followed by irritability (88.8%) and tachycardia (77.7%), then pagophagia (51.8%) and lastly splenomegaly (18.5%).
The current study also revealed no statistical significant differences between IDA patients and control group regarding different classes of socioeconomic status.
In the current work there were no statistical significant differences between IDA patients and controls regarding different anthropometric measurements.
The current study revealed that the mean values of hemoglobin, MCV and MCH were significantly lower in IDA patients than those of control group, while mean values of RDW were significantly higher in IDA patients. Additionally the IDA patients had lower values of serum ferritin compared to the controls yet this result didn’t reach a statistical significance.
The current study revealed that although lower levels of BDNF were detected in IDA patients compared to control group yet it didn’t reach a statistical significance.
The present study revealed that the mean values of total score of Wechsler IQ in IDA patients were significantly lower than controls.
Regarding the correlations studies in this work, distinct positive correlations between BDNF levels and many items of Wechsler IQ but these results reached a statistical significance only with object assembly.
Regression analysis studies revealed that the RDW is the most determinant factor that affects I.Q scores.