Serum Ferritin and the Assessment of Iron Deficiency in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In order to evaluate the diagnostic and pathogenetic importance of s[serum]-ferritin and p[plasma]-lactoferrin in the anemia of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), 38 patients were examined. Out of 38 randomly selected anemic patients with classical or definite RA 21 had Fe deficiency, as estimated from the Fe content in stained bone marrow aspiration. S-ferritin concentrations below 60 .mu.g/l had sensitivity and a specificity for Fe deficiency of 86 and 88%, respectively, which was much better than such commonly used variables as s-Fe, p-transferrin, MCV [mean corpuscular volume] and MCHC [mean corpuscular Hb concentration]. Although this cut-off level is higher than in patients without inflammatory disease, s-ferritin was not correlated to disease activity. In 7 out of 8 patients, the s-ferritin level rose during Fe therapy. P-lactoferrin values were within the normal range and did not vary with the anemia or with disease activity. Thus, p-lactoferrin appears to be of no pathogenetic importance in the anemia of RA.