Assessment of Iron Status with a New Fully Automated Assay for Transferrin Receptor in Human Serum

Abstract

Serum transferrin receptor is considered as a reliable marker of iron status particularly when iron deficiency is associated with chronic disorders such as inflammation, infection or malignancy. The present study aims to illustrate the performances of a new fully automated assay using immunonephelometry. The intra and between-assay precision was found to be very good (CVs < 4%). In healthy subjects there was no statistically significant difference between men and women. With a cut-off of 1.76 mg/l for diagnosing iron deficiency either alone or combined with anemia of chronic diseases, the sensitivity and specificity were respectively 82% and 96.8%. Unlike conventional biochemical and hematological tests, soluble transferrin receptor was unaffected by confounding pathologies. In genetic hemochromatosis the concentration of soluble transferrin receptor was mostly decreased due to the regulatory effect of iron intracellular level. Our study confirms the reliability of soluble transferrin receptor for the assessment of iron status. It is now possible to assay soluble transferrin receptor, ferritin and transferrin on the same apparatus within 15 minutes.

Soluble Transferrin Receptor levels of Apparently Healthy Adults in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

“…Kohgo et al and Allen et al [9,12] in their respective study, even though the former reported lower values and the latter higher sTfR values for each sex, did not find any significant difference in their mean sTfR as also seen in other related studies. [31,32] . On the contrary Knox-macaulay and co suggested otherwise from their work, stating that there was a statistically significant difference of sTfR values in men and women.…”

Detection of iron restriction in anaemic and non‐anaemic patients: New diagnostic approaches

“…Serum iron (Fe), ferritin and transferrin (Tf) were determined using the clinical chemistry analyser Cobas 6000 (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim Germany). Serum sTfR was assayed with the Siemens Healthineers BN prospect Analyzer (reference range 0.4‐1.8 mg/L) and the Cobas 6000 analyzer (Roche) (reference range 1.9‐4.4 mg/L for women and 2.2‐5.0 mg/L for men) . The TSAT was calculated based on the formula TSAT(%)=Fe (mg/L)×70.9/Tf (g/L).…”

Mat á járnbúskap með mælingu á transferrínviðtökum

“…Ferritín reyndist skilvirkari maelikvarði á járnskort en sTfR í þessari könnun. Í öðrum könnunum, þar sem þessar rannsóknir hafa verið bornar saman, hefur sTfR reynst betri en ferritín í sumum 10,16,[21][22][23] en ekki í öðrum, 15,17,18 ef til vill vegna mismunandi þýðis. Kannað var hvort bólgusvörun hefði áhrif á notagildi rannsóknanna með því að athuga naemi, sértaeki og skilvirkni þeirra við greiningu járn-skorts auk maelikvarða Youdens hjá þátttakendum með CRP annars vegar <6 mg/L og hins vegar ≥6 mg/L.…”