Measurement of ferritin in serum: Application in Diagnostic use

Abstract

A sandwich-type radioimmunoassay for serum ferritin was developed using iron-rich human liver ferritin and evaluated for its clinical usefulness. In young healthy males and females, the mean serum ferritin concentrations were 44 ~g/L (range 7-158) and 16 p.g/L (range 4-56), respectively. In anemic patients lower serum ferritin concentrations were found, while in most patients with iron overload serum ferritin concentrations well above 1000 ~g/L were measured. Comparison of our method with a commercially available radioimmunoassay kit revealed a good correlation, except for sera with very low ferritin concentrations. Comparison with serum iron and transferrin parameters in patients with iron deficiency demonstrated that serum ferritin concentrations might be subnormal in a majority of patients with otherwise normal iron indices. Up to 70% of the ferritin in serum of normal subjects could bind to concanavalin A-Sepharose, indicating its glycoprotein nature. It is concluded that our serum ferritin radioimmunoassay gave reliable results and was useful in the laboratory diagnosis of latent iron-deficiency and in the analysis of the heterogeneity of serum ferritin.

Serum ferritin level is higher in poorly controlled patients with Type 2 diabetes and people without diabetes, aged over 55 years

“…Serum ferritin level was also not associated with HbA 1c in our study. This result supports similar findings from other studies [1][2][3][4][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. There was a positive correlation between serum ferritin and age, and a tendency of increasing serum ferritin level with age.…”

Demonstration of a Hyperglycemia-Driven Pathogenic Abnormality of Copper Homeostasis in Diabetes and Its Reversibility by Selective Chelation

“…Trientine's effects on uptake of Ca, Mn, and Se were similar to those for Fe. At present, however, the significance of high plasma ferritin concentrations in a subset of diabetic patients remains unclear (40), as does the mechanism of the negative correlation between ferritin and [Cu] urine observed here in trientine-treated diabetic subjects. In the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988 -1994), an increased risk of diabetes was concentrated among participants with the lowest transferrin saturation concentrations; it was reported that this association was less likely to be explained by the Fe overload hypothesis and instead may be caused by inflammation as the mechanism by which ferritin becomes elevated in diabetes (38).…”

Ultrastructural evidence for the presence of ferritin-iron in the biliary system of patients with iron overload

“…Iron deposition was graded according to Scheuer et al (5). Serum ferritin was evaluated with the Ferritin Radioimmunoassay Kit obtained from the Radiochemical Centre, (Amersham, United Kingdom) (6). Some values of the test subjects are summarized in Table 1.…”