I would be interested to hear from any labs who routinely add CRP to their ferritin requests to try to assess whether or not the acute phase response has caused an increase in ferritin.

If you do use this strategy, do you suggest a level of CRP above which the ferritin result becomes unreliable? If so, what level and what is the basis for choosing it?  CRP and ferritin have very different time-profiles in acute inflammation; do you distinguish between acute and chronic inflammatory states in your interpretative guidance?

I am aware of an old WHO document on population screening for iron deficiency that suggested 30mg/L but I don’t think there was much quoted in the way of hard evidence in it, and I’m unclear on how this could be used to aid interpretation of raised ferritins.

Also – anybody running soluble transferrin receptor instead?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Angela

 

 

 

Mrs Angela Woods | Consultant Clinical Biochemist and Laboratory Director

Tel: 01438 286145 | Ext:6145, Lister | mobile 07920 542506

 

East & North Hertfordshire NHS Trust 

Pathology Laboratory | Lister Hospital | Corey’s Mill Lane | Stevenage | Hertfordshire | SG1 4AB | www.enherts-tr.nhs.uk

 

 



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