Clinical efficacy of polysaccharide iron complex plus vitamin C in the treatment of iron deficiency anemia in pregnancy and their effect on iron metabolism

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of polysaccharide iron complexes (PIC) plus vitamin C in treating iron deficiency anemia (IDA) during pregnancy and its effect on iron metabolism.Methods: Ninety pregnant women with IDA in their second trimester admitted into the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Nanchang Third Hospital, Jiangxi Province, China between June 2019 and June 2021 were randomly and equally assigned to receive either PIC (two 500 mg capsules daily) alone (control group) or PIC plus vitamin C (0.1 g daily) (study group) for 4 weeks. Efficacy was determined by changes in clinical symptoms and blood indices and iron metabolism indices (serum ferritin, serum iron, hepcidin, transferrin saturation) pre- and post-treatment. Adverse pregnancy outcomes were also recorded.Results: Both groups were comparable at baseline. Post-treatment, study group showed significantly higher red blood cell (RBC), hemoglobin (Hb), mean red blood cell volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) compared to control group (p < 0.05). Iron metabolism indices also significantly improved in study group with serum ferritin (SF), serum iron (SI), hepcidin (Hepc), and transferrin saturation (TSAT) (p < 0.05). The total clinical efficacy was higher in study group (p < 0.05), and the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcomes was lower (p < 0.05).Conclusions: The combination of PIC with vitamin C significantly improves the hematological indices, enhances iron metabolism, and reduces adverse pregnancy outcomes compared to PIC alone in pregnant women with IDA. Further studies with larger sample sizes are warranted to validate these results.