Iron Long-Term Labelling Study Malawi

Prof. Michael B. Zimmermann

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Iron Absorption

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02977806

Fe_LTL_Ma

Details and patient eligibility

About

Conventional indirect indicators of iron status, using serum and red blood cell biomarkers, are confounded by inflammation from common infections in sub-Saharan Africa, a region with a high prevalence of iron deficiency, making the assessment of iron balance and efficiency of iron intervention difficult. A new method allowing accurate measurement of long-term oral iron absorption and allowing the estimation of iron requirements is highly needed. Such a novel method to quantify iron absorption and requirements using isotope dilution measurements in children should be validated in the present prospective observational study by following-up a group of 49 children given a stable iron isotope in an earlier trial. We will request seven blood samples within 2 years (sampling every four months) from the participants which will allow us to measure isotopic dilution for estimating total oral iron absorption over these 24 months.

Enrollment: 48 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 3 to 10 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Have participated in the original absorption study and the two follow-up samplings
• Signed written informed consent from the guardian to participate in the study

Exclusion criteria

• Long-term medication
• Any severe metabolic, gastrointestinal kidney or chronic disease such as diabetes, hepatitis, hypertension, cancer or cardiovascular diseases (according to the guardian's statement or med-ical examination (health booklet))
• Blood losses (surgery, accident) or blood transfusion during the past 4 months before study start.
• Residence too far away (> 2 hours by motorbike) from study location (Zomba)