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Blood manganese concentration is elevated in iron deficiency anemia patients, whereas globus pallidus signal intensity is minimally affected.

Kim Y, Park JK, Choi Y, Yoo CI, Lee CR, Lee H, Lee JH, Kim SR, Jeong TH, Yoon CS, Park JH

Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Ulsan University Hospital, #290-3 Cheonha-Dong, Dong-Ku, Ulsan 682-060, South Korea. yanghokm@nuri.net

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether blood manganese (Mn) concentration is elevated in patients with iron deficiency anemia (IDA), and whether this affects signal intensities in the globus pallidus. METHODS: Twenty-seven patients with IDA and 10 control subjects were tested for blood Mn, and brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) were also examined. Seventeen of the 27 patients were followed-up after iron therapy. RESULTS: IDA patients had a mean blood Mn concentration of 2.05 +/- 0.44 microg/dl, which was higher than controls. The mean pallidal index (PI) of anemic patients was not different from that of controls. There was a correlation between log blood Mn and PI (rho = 0.384, P = 0.048; n = 27) in IDA patients. None of the patients showed increased signals in the globus pallidus in T1-weighted MRI. Blood Mn levels decreased and hemoglobin levels increased after iron therapy (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Although blood Mn is elevated in IDA patients, there is no increase in globus pallidus MRI signal intensity. These findings stand in contrast to those of our other studies showing patients with chronic liver disease or occupational Mn exposure have elevated signal intensities remarkably.

Published 5 November 2004 in Neurotoxicology, 26(1): 107-11.
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