Hello Doc, My Mother Is 60 Years Old, She Has

Posted on Sun, 5 Jan 2020

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 5 Jan 2020 Answered on

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Question : Hello Doc,

My mother is 60 years old, she has iron deficient anemia and thalassemia beta minor.
She has asthama as well and has sleep apnea .

I have attached her reports for your reference . She has recently taken the below injection which was prescribed by our general physician but one of the hematologist suggested to go for Inj Arachitol 3 lakh units one dose orally which she took already last week on 2nd XXXXXXX 2020.

Now the doctor has suggested for encicarb 500 inj in day care procedure.

Please advice if this should be taken or not since she has already taken two injections from past 2 weeks which is inj jectocas 2 doses in the last 15 days .

Thanks

Regards
Sneha D

Answered by Dr. Indranil Ghosh (12 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Need to decide based upon serum ferritin level

Detailed Answer:
Hi
Thanks for your query.

The anemia in your mother is mild only. Serum iron is also normal but percent saturation is on lower side. If serum ferritin is above 100 then I would not consider IV iron (encicarb) in my patient.

Jectocos each ampoule contains small dose of iron only so that itself doesn't rule out further encicarb injection.

But as I said, considering thalassemia minor, hemoglobin is not bad at all.

You can discuss about doing serum ferritin with her doc.

Hope this helps.
Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vaishalee Punj

Follow up: Dr. Indranil Ghosh (9 minutes later)

But is it safe to take IV encicarb right? Does it have any side effects?

Answered by Dr. Indranil Ghosh (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
It has some side effects

Detailed Answer:
During infusion, patient may have chills/rigor/fever, usually managed easily.

If iron stores are already high in body, it may lead to iron overload.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vaishalee Punj