Ratio of serum Transferrin Receptor (s-TFR) to serum ferritin (s-FT) in diagnosis of iron deficiency in elderly women

J. Sun, N. Ahluwalia, E. Morse, N. R. Haley, C. Lammi-Keefe

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Diagnosis of iron deficiency (ID) in presence of anemia of chronic inflammation (ACD) is difficult; most conventional tests of iron status including s-FT, are affected by inflammation. In adults s-TfR reflects tissue ID and is not affected by inflammation. We evaluated the diagnostic utility of s-TfR, and s-TfR/s-FT ratio (μg/μg) in identifying ID in elderly women (n=51, 70-79y). Subjects were iron-sufficient (IS, n=15); ID (n=11); ACD (n=9); or ACD+ID (n=16), based on presence of inflammation and hemoglobin (Hb) response (>1g/dl) with iron supplementation. S-TfR was determined by ELISA; values were converted to correspond to those obtained with a commercial kit (R&D Systems, MN). S-TfR (mg/l) increased in ID (2.3±0.7) vs IS (1.8±0.5) (p<0.05) but did not differ among other groups. Mean (±ISD) for s-TfR/s-FT was 110(140-298), 30(16-55), 12(8-18), and 45(18-110) for ID, IS, ACD, and ACD+ID, respectively (p<0.05). Using ROC analysis the optimal cut-off for s-TfR/s-FT to identify Hb response was 50 for IS vs ID (sens=0.82, spec=0.87), and 20 for ACD vs ACD+ID (sens=0.82, spec=0.89). These data suggest that s-TfR to s-FT ratio was superior to s-TfR in identifying ID in presence of inflammation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)A877
JournalFASEB Journal
Volume12
Issue number5
StatePublished - Mar 20 1998

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Biotechnology
  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics

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