Background: Iron deficiency anemia (IDA), is often caused by digestive disorder and should always be assessed, as its causes could be severe illness such as cancer.
Objectives: To study the diagnostic value of both upper and lower endoscopic examinations among patients with microcytic hypochromic anaemia without site -specific gastrointestinal (GIT) manifestations.
Patients and methods: A total of 50 Egyptian patients with IDA were included. Patients were clinically evaluated and investigated for: Complete blood picture, serum ferritin, serum iron and total iron binding capacity (TIBC). Patients were screened with Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and colonoscopy.
Results: The mean ±SD age of the patients was 36.4 ± 16.7, 19 males (38%) and 31 females (62%). The most common finding of EGD was Gastritis, it was present in 20 patients (40%) followed by Peptic ulcer in 9 patients (18%). There were 2 patients (4%) with celiac disease, 1 patient (2%) with crohn's disease, 2 patients (4%) with Gastric cancer, and 1 patient (2%) with angiodysplasia while there were 14 patients (28%) with normal EGD. Both procedures showed negative findings in 10 patients (20%), both procedures showed positive findings in 8 patients (16%) while 1 procedure only showed positive finding in 32 patients (64%).
Conclusion: Bidirectional endoscopies are valuable to detect the cause of IDA in patients without site –specific (GIT) manifestations. The most common GIT lesions were gastritis followed by peptic ulcer.