ACUTE IRON INTOXICATION - SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SEXES

Iron, one of the common medications in use among children and adults, is the leading cause of pediatric unintentional ingestion fatalities a nd is not an uncommon poisoning among adults. Accidental Ingestion is common because iron-containing compounds are readily available, bright ly colored, often sugar coated, and frequently considered harmless vit amins. There are no data on differences between sexes with regard to i ron intoxication, and the management of iron overdose is the same for females and males. After oral administration by gavage of the LD50 of iron to Wistar rats, the pharmacokinetics of iron, baseline and peak s erum iron levels, and mortality rates were compared between sexes. Pre pubertal females died significantly more than males (p<0.01), pubertal females died significantly earlier than males (p<0.04), and the same was true among adult rats (p=0.02). Baseline serum iron levels were no t significantly different between prepubertal female and male rats, bu t female pubertal rats had significantly higher baseline iron levels t han males (p=0.006). After iron administration, females had significan tly higher peak serum iron concentrations (p<0.03). Mechanisms of iron absorption are still not completely known and, probably, there are di fferences in iron absorption between sexes, which may account for the differences in serum iron levels and mortality rates. While the therap eutic approach in cases of intoxication is individual, iron intoxicati on, as may be true for other poisonings also, treatments administered to females may need to be different from that given to males.