Functional iron deficiency (FID) was linked to coronary heart disease (CHD), cardiovascular disease (CVD), and all-cause mortality in a new analysis published in ESC Heart Failure. Absolute iron deficiency (AID), meanwhile, was associated with only CHD, and severe AID was associated with only all-cause mortality.
Based on data from the MORGAM consortium, researchers evaluated 12,164 patients. While 55% of patients were women, the mean patient age was 59 years old.
Sixty percent of patients had AID, 16.4% had severe AID and 64.3% had FID.
In the analysis, patients with AID, severe AID, or FID were more likely to be women and younger.
During a median follow-up of 13.3 years, 18.2% of the patients died. Of those patients, 4.7% died from a cardiovascular problem while 8.5% were diagnosed with incident CHD. Incident stroke was seen in 6.3% of patients, according to the authors.
Also, FID was linked to 5.4% of all deaths, meaning 5.4% of those deaths "would presumably not have occurred if all individuals had the risk of those without FID at baseline." On a similar note, FID was linked to 11.7% of all CV deaths and 10.7% of all CHD deaths.
“These findings indicate that FID, but not AID or severe AID, is an important risk factor for CVD and mortality at the general population level," wrote lead author Benedikt Schrage, a cardiologist at the University Heart and Vascular Center in Germany, and colleagues.
Read the full study here.