Predicting Response to Iron Supplementation in Patients With Active Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Iron deficiency anemia is the most common systemic manifestation of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD)-Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Iron deficiency with or without anemia poses a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge due to chronic gastrointestinal blood loss and the inflammatory nature of IBD. Recent illumination of iron metabolism has brought attention to the systemic iron regulator-hepcidin, a peptide hormone that regulates intestinal iron absorption and systemic iron availability. Elevated hepcidin is associated with oral iron malabsorption in IBD. This study aims to evaluate whether hepcidin concentration at baseline can predict response to oral and intravenous iron therapy in patients with IBD and concomitant iron deficiency with or without anemia.