Can reticulocyte parameters be of use in detecting iron deficient erythropoiesis in female athletes?

Background, The purpose of this study was to investigate whether monitoring reticulocyte profiles, which are known to respond to iron store depletion in sedentary populations, could also be utilised with intensely training at hletes, Methods. A retrospective study of blood samples from 134 national level ath letes (61 males, 73 females) at the Australian Institute of Sport were anal ysed, from which reference ranges were calculated. To ascertain the stabili ty of reticulocyte profiles during periods of intense physical training, th e intraindividual variation of these parameters in 12 iron-replete female a thletes over a four month period of training was documented, The precision with which the analyzer measured these parameters was also determined using duplicate samples from 37 female athletes. To establish whether reticulocy te parameters were sensitive to iron deficient erythropoiesis in athletes, reticulocyte profiles of five female athletes diagnosed by medical personne l as having depleted iron stores were compared before and after iron therap y to seven controls. Results. Corpuscular hemoglobin concentration mean (CHCMr) and mean corpusc ular volume (MCVr) showed little variation over time in iron-replete female s, with 95 % of all fluctuations being within 5.8 % and 4.3 % of original v alues, respectively. Iron supplementation in athletes with depleted iron st ores elicited an increase in CHCMr (p=0.01), and a decrease in the distribu tions of reticulocyte volume (RDWr, p=0.01) and cell hemoglobin concentrati on (HDWr, p<0.01), The ratios of reticulocyte to mature cell MCV (p<0.01) a nd CHCM (p<0.01) also changed following iron therapy. No such changes occur red in non-supplemented controls with normal iron stores. Conclusions, These data lend support to the thesis that monitoring of retic ulocyte parameters can be of use in detecting iron deficient erythropoiesis in female athletes.