#PICA ANEMIA PLUS#

Pica is an unusual craving for and ingestion of either edible or inedible substances. We believe pica is an important sign of iron deficiency that should never be ignored, and the craving for any unusual substance should compel clinicians to search for occult blood loss with secondary iron deficiency. Pica symptoms abated in one of our patients upon iron supplementation, while the other two are currently under treatment as of this writing. None of our patients we describe here, as well as their primary care physicians, were aware of the importance of their pica related symptoms. We have noticed that the younger community of academic and community physicians are not aware of the importance of complaints related to pica. Pica has been practiced for centuries without a clear etiology. All three patients presented with hematological parameters diagnostic for iron deficiency anemia. Lastly, the third patient, a 37-year-old Hispanic woman, presented with dysfunctional uterine bleeding and habitually chewed rubber bands. The second patient is a 62-year-old Caucasian man who presented with bleeding from colonic polyps associated with drinking partially frozen bottled water. The first patient is a 36-year-old Caucasian woman who had dysfunctional uterine bleeding associated with daily ingestion of two super-sized cups of ice as iced tea. We describe three patients who presented with symptoms of pica. We report three patients with pica, two of them showing evolutionary changes associated with pica and the third demonstrating a peculiar nature of pica, which has yet to be reported. Pica anemia antioxidant capacity selenium zinc.Pica is an unusual condition where patients develop cravings for non-nutritive substances that can cause significant health risks. These effects should be kept in mind while managing patients with pica. Consequently, it is thought that the detrimental effects of pica within the organism were mediated by adverse impacts on antioxidant capacity and oxidative stress. Comparison of pica and IDA groups yielded significantly lower levels of total antioxidant levels and significantly higher oxidative stress index in the pica group.

Total oxidant levels were highest in the pica group and consistently, the lowest total antioxidant capacity was observed again in the pica group. The results demonstrated significantly lower levels of serum selenium and zinc in pica and IDA groups compared to the control group.

#PICA ANEMIA PLUS#

The present study evaluated the effects of pica and IDA on oxidative stress and antioxidant capacity as well as on the levels of trace elements including serum zinc and selenium in 47 children with IDA plus pica, 22 children with IDA only and 21 nonanemic children as controls. The effect of pica on oxidative stress and antioxidant capacity has not been investigated yet. The literature contains contracting data on the levels of oxidative stress and antioxidant levels in patients with iron-deficiency anemia (IDA).

There are a few studies on serum trace element levels of patients with pica. Pica is defined as developmentally inappropriate consumption of nonnutritive substances for at least 1 month.