Angular Cheilitis and Iron Deficiency Anemia

Abstract

Angular cheilitis presents as an area of inflamed and cracked skin at the angles of the mouth. Iron deficiency anemia seems to predispose to angular cheilitis. Thus this study was conducted to find out how many patients with angular cheilitis were having iron deficiency anemia.
Eighty-two patients (45 females and 37 males) between the age of (9-70) years with angular cheilitis were used in this study. Complete blood picture with hemoglobin estimation and blood films were done for each patient.
The highest number of patients with angular cheilitis was in the two age groups (5-14) and (55-64) years. Twenty-nine (35.3%) of patients with angular cheilitis were of iron deficiency anemia. Their hemoglobin values (Hb) were 9.3 ± 0.7 gm\dl in females and 10.6 ± 0.6 gm\dl in males while for those not anemic patients is 11.8 ± 1.1 gm\dl in females and 14.5 ± 0.6 gm\dl in males. The Hb values were significantly decreased in those patients with microcytic hypochromic red blood cells (p<0.01) of females and (p<0.05) of males.
The highest number of patients with iron deficiency anemia was in the age group (25-34) years, while in the age group of (65-74) years, patients with angular cheilitis were not affected with iron deficiency anemia.
Only twenty-nine (35.3%) of patients with angular cheilitis were having iron deficiency anemia (microcytic hypochromic anemia). The mean of hemoglobin values (Hb) were 9.3 ± 0.7 gm\dl for females and 10.6 ± 0.6 gm\dl for males.