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Discriminating between iron deficiency anemia and anemia of chronic disease using traditional indices of iron status vs transferrin receptor concentration. Am J Clin Pathol 2001 Jan;115(1):112-8

Date

02/24/2001

Pubmed ID

11190796

DOI

10.1309/6L34-V3AR-DW39-DH30

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0035220962 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   89 Citations

Abstract

We compared the ability of soluble serum transferrin receptor (TfR) concentration, quantified using the R&D Systems (Minneapolis, MN) enzyme-linked immunosorbent TfR assay, with other, more traditional indicators of iron status (total iron binding capacity [TIBC], mean corpuscular volume [MCV], percent transferrin saturation [%TS], RBC distribution width [RDW], and serum iron concentration [SIC]) for discriminating between patients with iron deficiency anemia (IDA) or anemia of chronic disease (ACD). The TfR concentration was determined in 72 serum samples selected from men and nonpregnant women classified biochemically on the basis of ferritin concentration as having IDA (n = 41) or ACD (n = 31). By using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the diagnostic accuracy of the various indicators of iron status that we evaluated for discriminating between IDA and ACD decreased in the following order: TIBC > TfR > MCV > (%TS = RDW) > SIC. There was no significant difference between the diagnostic accuracy of TIBC and TfR. Thus, the routine measurement of TfR offers no advantage over TIBC for discriminating between people with biochemically defined IDA or ACD.

Author List

Wians FH Jr, Urban JE, Keffer JH, Kroft SH

Author

Steven Howard Kroft MD Chair, Professor in the Pathology department at Medical College of Wisconsin




MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
Anemia
Cell Size
Chronic Disease
Diagnosis, Differential
Erythrocytes
Female
Humans
Iron
Male
Middle Aged
Osmolar Concentration
ROC Curve
Receptors, Transferrin