Anemia, hematinic deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia, and gastric parietal cell antibody positivity in atrophic glossitis patients with iron deficiency

Background/Purpose: Our previous study found that 180 of 1064 atrophic glossitis (AG) patients have iron deficiency. This study assessed whether all AG patients with iron deficiency (so-called ID/AG patients) had iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and evaluated whether the ID/AG patients had significantly higher frequencies of anemia, hematinic deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia, and serum gastric parietal cell antibody (GPCA) positivity than healthy control subjects. Methods: The blood hemoglobin (Hb) and serum iron, vitamin B12, folic acid, homocysteine, and GPCA levels in 180 ID/AG patients and 532 healthy control subjects were measured and compared. Results: We found that 180 ID/AG patients had significantly lower mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and lower mean blood Hb and serum iron levels as well as significantly higher mean serum homocysteine level than healthy control subjects (all P-values < 0.001). Moreover, 180 ID/AG patients had significantly higher frequencies of blood Hb (46.1%), serum iron (100.0%), vitamin B12 (8.3%), and folic acid (4.4%) deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia (16.1%), and serum GPCA positivity (31.1%) than 532 healthy control subjects (all P-values < 0.001). In addition, of 83 anemic ID/AG patients, 9 (10.8%) had pernicious anemia, 40 (48.2%) had normocytic anemia, 30 (36.2%) had IDA, and 4 (4.8%) had thalassemia trait-induced anemia. Conclusion: We conclude that ID/AG patients had significantly higher frequencies of blood Hb, serum iron, vitamin B12, and folic acid deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia, and serum GPCA positivity than 532 healthy control subjects. Normocytic anemia is the most common type of anemia in ID/AG patients, followed by IDA, pernicious anemia, and thalassemia trait-induced anemia.