Folate Deficiency in Children With Sickle Cell Anemia

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Abstract
Serum and erythrocyte folate contents, body weight, and height were measured in 33 children with sickle cell anemia and in socioeconomically similar control groups including 31 children with hemoglobin AS and 37 blacks with hemoglobin AA. Half the patients and a third of each control group had low serum folate levels; two sickle cell patients and none of the control subjects had low erythrocyte folate levels. There was no correlation between serum or erythrocyte folate contents and age-adjusted weight or height. These findings suggest that (1) inadequate dietary folate intake is common among subjects included in this study, (2) clinically significant folate deficiency is relatively common in children with sickle cell anemia but rare in control subjects, and (3) folate deficiency does not contribute significantly to the pathogenesis of growth retardation in sickle cell anemia.