Combating iron deficiency in children

Iron therapy substantially restores qEEG maturational lag among iron-deficient anemic infants

OBJECTIVE

To use quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) to assess the impact of iron-deficiency anemia on central nervous system maturation in the first year of life.

METHOD

Twenty-five infants (3-12 months old) presenting ferropenic anemia (IDA) and 25 healthy controls (CTL1), matched by age/gender with the former, were studied in two stages. Electroencephalogram during spontaneous sleep was recorded from all participants; the fast Fourier transform was calculated to obtain absolute power (AP) and relative power (RP) qEEG measures. In the first stage, a qEEG comparison between CTL1 and IDA was performed. Second stage consisted in comparing qEEG of the IDA infants before and after supplementation with iron (IDA-IS group), and comparing qEEG of the IDA-IS group with another control age-matched group (CTL2). Non-parametric multivariate permutation tests (NPT) were applied to assess differences between CTL1 and IDA groups, as well as IDA vs. IDA-IS, and IDA-IS vs. CTL2.

RESULTS

More power in slow frequency bands and less power in fast frequency bands in 64% of IDA babies were observed. NPT evinced higher alpha AP and RP (P < 0.001), less theta AP, and less delta and theta RP in CTL1 than in IDA. After iron-restoration therapy, alpha AP and RP increased while theta AP and theta and delta RP decreased, reaching almost normal values.

DISCUSSION

This work reveals CNS developmental delay through the study of qEEG (less rapid and more slow frequencies) which recovered significantly with iron supplementation. It is concluded that IDA constitutes a high risk factor for a lag of CNS maturation.