Significantly higher frequencies of anemia, hematinic deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia, and serum gastric parietal cell antibody positivity in atrophic glossitis patients

Background/Purpose: Atrophic glossitis (AG) patients are prone to have anemia, hematinic deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia, and serum gastric parietal cell antibody (GPCA) positivity. This study evaluated whether 1064 AG patients had significantly higher frequencies of anemia, hematinic deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia, and serum GPCA positivity than 532 healthy control subjects. Methods: The complete blood count, serum iron, vitamin B12, folic acid, homocysteine, and serum GPCA levels in 1064 AG patients and 532 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects were measured and compared. Results: We found that 7.4%, 3.9%, 19.0%, 16.9%, 5.3%, 2.3%, 11.9%, and 26.7% of 1064 AG patients were diagnosed as having microcytosis, macrocytosis, hemoglobin, iron, vitamin B12, and folic acid deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia, and serum GPCA positivity, respectively. Moreover, 1064 AG patients had significantly higher frequencies of microcytosis, macrocytosis, hemoglobin, iron, vitamin B12, and folic acid deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia, and serum GPCA positivity than 532 healthy control subjects (all P-values < 0.005). Of the 202 anemic AG patients, 22 had pernicious anemia, eight had macrocytic anemia rather than pernicious anemia, 117 had normocytic anemia, 30 had iron deficiency anemia, and 21 had thalassemia trait-induced anemia, and four had microcytic anemia rather than iron deficiency anemia and thalassemia trait-induced anemia. Conclusion: There are significantly higher frequencies of anemia, serum iron, vitamin B12, and folic acid deficiencies, hyperhomocysteinemia, and serum GPCA positivity in AG patients than in healthy control subjects. The normocytic anemia and iron deficiency anemia are the two most common types of anemia in our 1064 AG patients.