ust got home from my 11th (WOOO HOO 1 to go!) treatment. My iron studies came
back showing iron deficiency anemia. A normal iron saturation is 20-55, mine
was 7. I really flunked that test! But my ferritin is normal. The nephrologist
ordered iron tabs 3 times a day. So being me, I came home and it looked it up.
I found this at irondisorders.org

“Anemia of Chronic Disease (ACD) is a condition of impaired iron utilization
where functional iron (hemoglobin) is low but tissue iron (such as in storage)
is normal or high. ACD is seen in a wide range of chronic malignant,
autoimmune, leukemic, inflammatory, and infectious disease conditions.

In rheumatoid arthritis there is frequently co-existence of ACD and iron
deficiency anemia resulting from gastrointestinal bleeding due to drug therapy.
ACD, also known as hypoferremia of inflammatory disease and anemia of
inflammation, is often diagnosed as mild iron deficiency anemia.

Supplementation with iron for those with ACD can be harmful and even result in
death.”

So now I am a bit scared to take that iron. I won’t take it until I speak with
my RD tomorrow. I was wondering if any of you have ACD and how you treat it, if
at all.

I am so allergic to the stuff taken either oral, injection or by transfusion that I can fully
understand your concerns re this…. It can be very dangerous, anaphylaxis
has occured with me, and also collapsing withing seconds of having a few
drops from a transfusion.. Every vein and capilary showed up as bright
purple as soon as the transfusion started going through., the swelling took
days to go down. I now have red cell pack transfusions when the anaemia is
so bad to try and build me up a bit….Be very careful please, for me. Best
wishes Connie

If you go to my Weinberg sig and type in ‘iron withholding mechanism’ you
should come up with the information you are looking for. Anemia of chronic
disease and the iron withholding mechanism are one and the same.

I also remember a discussion of ACD in another group, and an RD who
posted there said ACD really only responds to getting the disease in
control. As in getting inflammation under control, I believe he meant.
Also, to monitor the situation closely, and start with the recommended
dosage even if anemia is severe, as iron can be toxic to the gut
lining.

Well, I bet that makes you feel better, NOT, LOL, like it did when I
went to the opthamologist. Of course, by the time I got to the
appointment time, I was not flaring and my eyes were not bothering me.
He saw no problems at that time (yay!)except that I needed some mild
eyeglasses prescriptions for both reading and distance. Got my new
geek glasses, that I love, for driving and another pair for reading.
But he said since my eyes bother me when my RA is worse, it’s possible
that it is affecting the collagen in my eyes, and the solution would be
to get the RA not to flare. All I could think of was DOH! Like that
wouldn’t be the goal in any case for a person with RA. Course I
stopped short of saying “Gee,Thanks, Homer!” since I liked the guy, and
may need to go back to him when my eyes *are* acting up again.