The investigations were made to clarify the role of vitamin E in iron defici-ency anemia and the following results were obtained:
1. Seventy-eight cases with ircn deficiency anemia showed lower level of serum vitamin E (0.88±0.16mg per 100ml) than 100 healthy adults (1.25±0.12mg per 100ml).
2. In those cases who showed excellent recovery from anemia following iron therapy, significant increase of serum vitamin E level was observed, and in the relapsing cases the serum vitamin E level was depressed again in the relapsed stage. The cases with insufficient recovery from anemia following iron therapy were found to have lesser increase of serum vitamin E.
3. Combination therapy with iron and vitamin E was proved to decrease the incidence of relapse in iron deficiency anemia and to bring better prognosis in iron deficiency anemia with insufficient recovery following iron therapy alone. Namely, relapse occurred in 26.6% of patients treated with combination therapy in comparison with relapse 53.3% of patients treated with iron therapy alone. In fifty percent of the cases with insufficient recovery from anemia, further in-crease of hemoglobin level was observed following comb nation therapy.
Role of vitamin E in clarifyinn the pathophysiology and treatment of iron deficiency anemia was discussed.
A part of this paper was presented at the International Society of Hematology XIIth Congress, New York, September, 1968.