Gastrointestinal bleeding in competitive runners.
Competitive runners have been shown to develop previously undescribed clinical conditions, including "runner's anemia." This has been shown to be an iron-deficiency anemia of several etiologies including gastrointestinal bleeding. Although 8-23% of runners have been shown to have guaiac-positive stools after a marathon, the incidence of significant and prolonged bleeding is unknown. We report four cases of competitive runners with iron-deficiency anemia, gastrointestinal bleeding coinciding with running, and no definitive gastrointestinal pathology despite extensive evaluation.
D000328:Adult; D000747:Anemia, Hypochromic / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000209:etiology*; D006400:Hematocrit; D006801:Humans; D009780:Occult Blood; D010807:Physical Endurance; D012420:Running