The Use of Zinc Protoporphyrin in Screening Young Children for Iron Deficiency

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Abstract
The common practice of screening children for iron deficiency with hematocrit (HCT) or hemoglobin detects only those children with iron deficiency severe enough to cause anemia. At 40 cents per test, zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP) can be measured in the physician's office and identify iron deficiency before anemia develops. The purpose of our study was to evaluate ZPP screening in young children by hematofluorimetry. All children between 9 and 36 months old were enrolled over a 1-year period. All children with HCT(P ZPP had a greater sensitivity (81 %) than HCT (16%) in identifying children with iron deficiency. ZPP proved to be an effective and inexpensive addition to HCT in identifying children with iron deficiency.