Serum perritin as a measure of iron stores in normal indian subjects and pregnant women

Abstract

Serum ferritin has been estimated by ELISA (double antibody sandwich technique) in 225 normal and anaemic subjects as well as pregnant women. It was log-normally distributed with a geometric mean of 58.9 ng/ml in 60 normal males and 31.6 ng/ml in 58 normal females. In 75 nonanaemic pregnant women, it was 21.9 ng/ml in the first trimester, 19.5 ng/ml in the second trimester and 14.4 ng/ml in the third trimester of pregnancy. In 32 nonpregnant anaemic women, it was 9.0 ng/ml. There was no correlation between serum ferritin and serum iron or transferrin saturation. In 46.8% of anaemic women, serum ferritin was elevated in the face of anaemia and low transferrin saturation, limiting the value of serum ferritin as a universal tool for the assessment of iron deficiency, at least in this geographic region where iron deficient states are often complicated by infections.