TY  - JOUR
A1  - Dignass, Axel Uwe
A1  - Farrag, Karima
A1  - Stein, Jürgen
T1  - Limitations of serum ferritin in diagnosing iron deficiency in inflammatory conditions
T2  - International journal of chronic diseases
N2  - Patients with inflammatory conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), chronic heart failure (CHF), and chronic kidney disease (CKD) have high rates of iron deficiency with adverse clinical consequences. Under normal circumstances, serum ferritin levels are a sensitive marker for iron status but ferritin is an acute-phase reactant that becomes elevated in response to inflammation, complicating the diagnosis. Proinflammatory cytokines also trigger an increase in hepcidin, which restricts uptake of dietary iron and promotes sequestration of iron by ferritin within storage sites. Patients with inflammatory conditions may thus have restricted availability of iron for erythropoiesis and other cell functions due to increased hepcidin expression, despite normal or high levels of serum ferritin. The standard threshold for iron deficiency (<30 μg/L) therefore does not apply and transferrin saturation (TSAT), a marker of iron availability, should also be assessed. A serum ferritin threshold of <100 μg/L or TSAT < 20% can be considered diagnostic for iron deficiency in CHF, CKD, and IBD. If serum ferritin is 100–300 μg/L, TSAT < 20% is required to confirm iron deficiency. Routine surveillance of serum ferritin and TSAT in these at-risk groups is advisable so that iron deficiency can be detected and managed.
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/50649
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-506498
SN  - 2314-5749
N1  - Copyright © 2018 Axel Dignass et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
VL  - 2018
IS  - Art. 9394060
SP  - 1
EP  - 11
PB  - Hindawi
CY  - New York, NY [u. a.]
ER  -