Background: Iron deficiency is a cause of anemia in many hemodialysis patients. It remains under diagnosed in patients with kidney diseas and it leads to inappropriate response to erythropoietin. Early diagnosis of this anemia before usage of erythropoietin is important, to prevent prescription of expensive erythropoietin and unnecessary costs to the patient and the health care system. This study was conducted to determine prevalence of iron deficiency anemia in hemodialysis patients.

Methods: This study was cross-sectional comparative study and was conducted at National Institute of Kidney Disease. Sheikh Zayed hospital nephrology department after taking permission from concerned department. Informed consent was taken from patients also. We measured serum ferritin, serum iron, Total iron binding capacity, complete blood count, hemoglobin in 140 hemodialysis patients. Serum samples were taken, processed and assessed for ferritin levels using commercially available ELISA kits. P value less than ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Out of 140 hemodialysis patients, 34 had Iron deficiency anemia . (IDA).

Conclusion: Iron deficiency anemia was observed in 24.2 % of hemodialysis patients.