Iron Deficiency Anemia and Serum Hepcidin Level in Children with Typhoid Fever: A Case–Control Study

Objective Typhoid fever is a common systemic bacterial infection in children with a complex interplay between serum hepcidin and iron. We investigated the relationship between iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and serum hepcidin level in children with acute typhoid fever. Methods We conducted a preliminary case–control study in Mansoura University Children's Hospital, Egypt from April 2017 to May 2019 including 30 children aged 5 to 15 years with confirmed acute typhoid fever. We recruited 15 healthy nonanemic children, of comparable ages and sex as controls from the same hospital while attending for nonfebrile complaints. Typhoid fever cases were subdivided according to IDA existence into 16 cases with IDA and 14 non-IDA cases. We excluded all children having diseases which may affect serum iron and hepcidin levels, for example, liver, blood, gastrointestinal, and kidney diseases, and patients receiving drugs interfering with iron metabolism. All participants were subjected to complete blood count, serum ferritin, iron, hepcidin levels, and total iron-binding capacity (TIBC). Results In non-IDA typhoid fever group, serum iron level was significantly low, while serum hepcidin level was significantly high when compared with controls (p < 0.001 and p = 0.02, respectively). In IDA typhoid fever group, no statistically significant difference existed as regards serum hepcidin level when compared with controls (p = 0.53). No significant correlations were detected between serum hepcidin levels and hemoglobin, serum iron, ferritin, and TIBC values in each group. Conclusion Preexisting iron status could affect serum hepcidin level in patients with acute typhoid fever. Coexistence of IDA might oppose the up-regulatory effect of acute typhoid fever on serum hepcidin level.