Diagnostic limitations of the physical examination in the identification of children with anemia

: A total of 143 children was randomly selected from a Pediatric out-patients clinic in order to evaluate the accuracy and reproductibility of the clinical signs of anemia. The patients, who ranged from 6 to 68 months old, were assessed on the basis of 2 clinical examinations performed independently by 2 physicians. Clinical diagnosis of anemia relied upon the examination for the presence of pallor through an inspection of the skin, conjunctivaes, lips, tongue and palms. The reference standard taken into consideration was hemoglobin in venous blood samples. The prevalence of anemia (hemoglobin < 11.0 g/dL) consisted of 41.3%, predominating among patients who ranged from 6 to 24 months old (59.3%). The sensitivity of the different clinical signs for the 2 examinations was low ranged from 28.8% to 52.5%. Almost all the children with hemoglobin concentration lower than 9.0 g/dL presented at least one suggestive clinical sign of anemia. The Kappa coefficient (K) demonstrated a mild agreement between the 2 examinations for the assessment of cutaneous pallor (K = +0.32) and moderate agreement for the evaluation of the conjunctivaes, lips-tongue and palms (K from +0.55 to +0.59). In view of limitation of the accuracy and reproductibility of the clinical signs of anemia, we may state that the determination of hemoglobin concentration should be introduced as a routine procedure of major importance in health care services.